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FIRST 
Semi-Centenary Celebration 



OF 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE 



Historical and Commemorative, 



DELIVERED AT THE 



ANNUAL COMMENCEMENT. 



WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 1887. 



PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES. 



RALEIGH, N. C. : 
E. M. Uzzell, Steam Printer and Binder, 

1888. 



PREFACE 



The Trustees of Davidson College, at their annual meeting in 
1886, appointed a committee consisting of A. White, Esq., Rev. 
William S. Lacy and Colonel William H. Stewart to confer with 
such committee as the Alumni Association should appoint, and 
prepare a plan for the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the 
life of Davidson College. The Alumni Association appointed a 
committee consisting of Professor C. C. Norwood, Mr. J. H. 
McClintock and Mr. W. H. Stevenson, and this joint committee on 
a subsequent day presented the following recommendations: 

1. That the Literary Societies of the College be requested, in 
consequence of the special observance to be held in commemoration 
of the semi-centennial year of the existence of Davidson College, 
to surrender the choice of an orator before the Societies on Wednes- 
day of next Commencement. 

2. That the special exercises consist: 

(1). Of an Historical Sketch of the College for the first fifty 
years of life, to be prepared by the Rev. J. Rumple, D. D. 

(2). An appropriate address to the Alumni and the Literary 
Societies, to be delivered by some one of the distinguished sons of 
the institution. 



IV PREFACE. 

(3;. A social reunion, or Alumni Banquet, to be conducted under 
fa e - 1 i ees of the A I u i a n i Associ i n, at which shal 1 be presented 
brief addresses or papers, commemorative of the different I 
lents cge and of deceased Alumni, and various sc 

ents shall be i :-f - . e?ponded : 

(4). That the details : such a cele:. is becom ~ - impor- 

taut an event be entrusted ecial committee consisting 

.1 . hambers. Est tte, Pro- 

fess r W. J. Mar::::. Prefer :r W. I». Y:::« \ \V. S. Lac 

Under the direction of the celebration occurred 

t 1: 1887 b stantiall y in the order set forth in the foregoing 
Peso] [dress on Den m inal 

Colleges W M F Eskim lege, 8. C 

the celebration, the Rev. William >. L se :ed to the 

*es the following resolutions, which were adopted: 
Besotted. That the thanks the Board of T stees be tendered 
Rev Trier for his address on Denominational 

leg :ed for publication. 

Resolved, That the Exec mmittee be directe erin- 

tend the publication of a semi-centennial volume, and that the 

address of the Hon. A. Leazar, the Historical r. Dr. 

ie. and the address of the Rev. W. M. drier. I [ 

gether with the various commemorative papers and addresses, be 



PREFACE. V 

included in the volume; and that a sum sufficient to defray the 
expense of publication be appropriated out of the funds of the 
College. 

The Executive Committee, having received these instructions, 
appointed Rev. J. Rumple, D. D., and S. H. Wiley, Esq., of Salis- 
bury, N. C, to receive and arrange the several papers and superin- 
tend their publication. 

With this account of the origin and nature of the volume here- 
with presented to the public, the committee consider themselves 
discharged, with the hope that their care and oversight have con- 
tributed somewhat to the production of a book that is to preserve 
for future generations the early history of Davidson College. 

Salisbury, N. C, January 1, 188S. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

1. Semi-Centenary Address, 

By Hon. A. Leazar 1 

2. Historical Sketch, 

By Rev. Jethro Rumple, D. D 25 

3. Denominational Colleges, 

By Rev. VV. M. Grier, D. D 71 

4. Administration of Rev. R. H. Morrison, D. D., 

By Hon. J. G.Ramsay 91 

5. Administration of Rev. Samuel Williamson, D. D., 

By A. White, Esq ., 109 

6. Administration of Rev. Drury Lacy, D. D , 

By Rev. R. Z. Johnston 121 

7. Administration of Rev. J. L. Kirkpatrick, D. D., 

By Professor J. R. Blake 131 

8. Administration of Rev. G. Wilson McPhail, D. D., LL. D., 

By Rev. A. W. Milner '...» ......; 141 

9. Administration of Prof. J. R. Blake, Chairman, 

By Colonel Alex. R. Banks 147 

10. Administration of Rev. A. D. Hepburn, D. D., LL. D., 

By Edward Chambers Smith, Esq 157 



ADDRESS 



TO THE 



ALUMNI AND TO THE LITERARY SOCIETIES 



AT THE 



SEMI-CENTENARY CELEBRATION OF DAVIDSON COLLEGE, 

JUNE 13, 1887. 



BY HON. A. LEAZAR, CLASS OF 1860. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen : 

Two score and ten times we have wheeled our course 
about the sun since '37 : that is, the world has. Mill- 
ions have come and sung, and fought, and wept, and 
died. Kings and kingdoms have been born and buried. 
Empires have swept the continents, and been swept 
again into the Past's great ocean. The fires of war, all 
sorts of war, the combustion of change, have consumed 
some of the dross, have refined somewhat the silver : the 
bad has been burning, the good, under the great Provi- 
dence, has been brightening. 

'37-'87. And we are here at Appii Forum, to thank 
God and take courage. Who are here? The fathers, 
they of heavenly inspiration, who prayed and planned, 
in the log hut over there at Prospect in '35, this noble 



^ SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

muniment of Christian civilization : are they here? 
Spirits of the mighty dead, all hail! 

These of the frosty lock, the old boys, they are here: 
one almost hears the throb of their strong, manly hearts. 
The old landmarks, those dingy walls and their old com- 
panions, the rugged oaks over there, remain to greet 
them. Those grand old trees, their youth renewed it 
seems, stand there living witnesses, Titanic sentinels 
of the old campus martins. They are historic: they 
heard the brave, clear voice of the great first declaration 
of the nation's birth. They quivered with the echoes 
of musketry that floated up from the Catawba's banks 
when Davidson, our martyr-patriot, met Cornwallis, 
the Britons' Lord. They have seen the joys and fol- 
lies, the struggles and victories of many a hundred of the 
very flower of the youth of our land. They have cov- 
ered with their shadows the soil and the men that have 
made the feeble colonies a great people among the 
nations. They have witnessed much of all the best and 
noblest and greatest of a century. Oh, they could tes- 
tify of war, and they could tell of the arts of smiling 
peace, too, possibly more of this than that. We salute 
you, old friends. Ye are beautifuler than the palms of 
Paradise. 

The new men are here, too. Gathered in this new 
temple of science from the plains that drink the Atlan- 
tic's salt-breath, from the delectable slopes that rest 
upon the foot of the Blue Mountains, from the valleys 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 6 

that sleep like emeralds in the lap of the Alleghanies, 
from the land of the palm and the orange, from the 
banks of the Father of Waters, from the empire born 
under the Lone Star, they come, they crowd these gates 
to celebrate the golden birthday of our noble mother. 
They come with proud hearts or bright ambitions ; hope's 
pillar of fire shines clear upon the expectant face; no 
furrows mark the track of trouble; no silvery fringe 
of wintry frost, no scars to prove the courage of foe or 
the treachery of friend : but flushed only with the 
delightful frenzy of the first skirmish, it may be, in the 
great battle of life, they are young and fresh as the man- 
tle that covers that lovely plain, that's lovelier than the 
gardens of Tempe's vale. We salute you, young men ! 
And fair women, we'll let the young men salute you! 
All together, we join hands and hearts to celebrate this 
glorious consummation of the hopes and prayers of two 
generations. We approximate to-day, if indeed we do 
not realize, the ideal of the fathers. They looked to a 
fortress of Christian liberty, to a fountain of consecrated 
learning, to a bulwark of the Church. Here it is. 
Davidson College, founded in the faith that lays hold 
upon the throne of the Almighty, stands not to fall, a 
tower of strength four-square to all the winds that blow, 
the brave defender of the faith committed, the highest 
exponent of the best civilization of the noblest people 
on the continent. Our neighbors and brothers from sis- 
ter states will pardon our pride in speaking of the glori- 



4 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

ous race that peopled this goodly land. Whence came 
they? Who were they? Till the middle of the last 
century this was the home of the Catawba Indian. 
Undisturbed by the march of civilization, these rolling 
fields, not then as since covered with majestic forests, a 
beautiful prairie land, were his undisputed hunting- 
grounds. Our progenitors were then the brave and 
hardy settlers of the Piedmont slopes and valleys of 
Pennsylvania and Maryland. Protected by the Blue 
Mountains behind them from the savage Indian and hos- 
tile Frenchman, they felt secure in the enjoyment of 
their new-world homes, till the catastrophe of Brad- 
dock's defeat gave fearful warning of torch and toma- 
hawk. They abandon their settlements, and moving 
down- parallel with the Alleghanies, they pitch their 
camp in this beautiful mesopotamia — the land of the 
peaceful Catawba. Scotch-Irish and Germans, sturdy, 
stalwart, God-fearing disciples of John Knox; brave, 
brawny, brainy followers of Martin Luther, the finest 
types of those greatest races, the Celts and Teutons, they 
came: and here they reared the log-cabin, built the log 
church with the log school-house hard by, turned the 
untrodden sod of the meek virgin earth, and thus began 
the foundation of a nation. With common aims and 
wants, with common fears and hopes, with like faith in 
one God and Savior, these pioneers mingled in church 
and family, to a great extent; they married and produced 
the race we glorify to-day. They were a wise people, 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 5 

for they feared God and lived their acknowledgment of 
His sovereignty. They loved liberty, they had a true 
conception of real liberty: they came to the wilderness 
to secure it and were willing to make sacrifices for 
it. They appreciated learning, consecrated learning, the 
true education. The thoughtful observer could hardly 
assert that their theory of what a man ought to know 
and their methods of teaching or getting it were greatly 
inferior to ours under the gorgeous rays of the declining 
sun of the next century after. There were philosophers 
among them, savants in homespun, colleges of learned 
men and broad curricula in log walls. 

*For example, just over the hills there, near the Red 
House or Belle Mont, the old manor of the distin- 
guished family of the Osbornes, and within easy hearing 
of the college bell, these people established, about 1760, 
the earliest institution of learning in this part of the 
country, antedating the Queen's Museum by ten years. 
It was conducted by some of the most learned men of 
the time, by Rev. David Kerr, graduate of the Univer- 
sity of Dublin and afterwards Professor in the Univer- 
sity of North Carolina; by Dr. Charles Caldwell, later 
the distinguished Professor in a medical school in 
Philadelphia, and by others of like character: and the 



*For the facts in regard to ante-Revolutionary schools, the author is 
greatly indebted to Rev. E. F. Rockwell, D. D., whose paper upon 
Centre Church, some years ago, is esteemed an invaluable contribution 
to the history of the country. 



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6 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

extent of the reputation of this Crowfield Academy is 
proven by the fact that it was patronized by students 
even from the West Indies. Here in this institution 
were moulded the minds of some of the bravest spirits 
and strongest men of that or any day and generation, 
the men who made glorious history and gave original 
direction to the civil and ecclesiastical polity of the 
embryo nation. Here were educated Dr. McRee, the 
scholarly divine; Dr. James Hall, the learned and mili- 
tary parson; Dr. Samuel E. McCorkle, one of the fore- 
most educators the country ever produced ; Col. Adiai 
Osborne, the wise counsellor and able defender of the peo- 
ple's rights; Dr. Ephraim Brevard, the heaven-inspired 
author of the historic Declaration, and probably Hugh 
Lawson White, the most distinguished citizen of our 
daughter Tennessee, during the first part of this century, 
a prominent candidate for the Presidency of the United 
States in 1836; these and many others were leaders of 
thought and action, of immense influence upon the 
country. 

Cotemporaneous in part with Crowfield, was the Sugar 
Creek School, mastered by Craighead, Alexander and 
other godly and learned men. In 1770 it was chartered 
by the Colonial Legislature with the rank of a college, 
as the Queen's Museum : this charter was annulled by 
the King, amended and re-enacted in 1771, and again 
annulled by George III. After the Revolution, inaugu- 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 7 

rated and successfully prosecuted by these men and the 
men they inspired, the Queen's Museum was revived in 
Liberty Hall. 

And permit a reference to still another of these educa- 
tional efforts, illustrating the irrepressible energy of 
these fathers of ours toward the laying well of the foun- 
dations of civil and religious liberty. 

The school of Dr. Samuel E. McCorkle, to whom 
allusion has been made, twenty miles over there among 
the Scotch-Irish and Germans of Rowan, could have 
flourished only among a broad-minded, public-spirited 
people, devoted to the pursuit of true learning. Here 
the sturdy youth of that day found thorough training 
in Theology, elaborate learning in the Ancient Classics, 
profound studies in Mathematics, a less extended course 
in the Natural Sciences, and even then, one hundred 
years ago, this great pioneer and philosopher taught the 
art of teaching; but didn't call it pedagogics. Dr. 
McCorkle's school was called Zion-Parnassus, indicating 
his idea of learning — the combination of religion and 
polite literature. This great apostle, justly called "the 
father of education in North Carolina/' was elected first 
chairman of the Faculty of the University upon its 
organization in 1793; but he declined the responsibility, 
preferring his unpretentious labors at Thyatira. 

Such were the efforts, such were the builders that laid 
deep and compact the foundations of the fabric of society. 



8 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

Verily, they builded wisely, more wisely than they knew. 
The lines of development, originally laid out by these 
demi-gods of our history, were taken up and carried on, 
in God's providence, by their sons till the Presbytery of 
Concord in session of March, 1835, in the log hut at 
Prospect, formulated the inspiration that called for the 
founding of this noble seat. The unwritten story is, 
that upon a blackboard standing against the wall of the 
Session-house at Prospect was written by the hand of 
Rev. Robert H. Morrison the modest and unambitious 
declaration of those wise men, that "with reliance upon 
God's blessing" they would undertake the establishment 
of a school for the promotion of liberal learning, " pre- 
paratory to the gospel ministry." Revs. Robert Hall 
Morrison, John Robinson, Stephen Frontis and Samuel 
Williamson, with Elders Robert Burton, William Lee 
Davidson, John Phifer and Joseph Young: to these were 
committed the responsibility of preparing a plan and 
location. The College was opened to students in 1837 
under the presidency of Rev. Robert Hall Morrison. 

Fifty years of sunshine and shadow, mostly sunshine; 
of balmy peace and stormy blast, mostly peace; of good 
and ill, mostly good, under the kind Providence at first 
and all along invoked and relied upon, have come to the 
tree that was planted and watered by Morrison and his 
compeers : deep into the earth it has passed its roots, its 
branches give grateful shadow to the youth of a broad 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 9 

land, its fruits are the blessing of society in Church and 
State, from the Potomac to the Rio Grande. 

Davidson College came into life and action the neces- 
sary response to the demand of the time, the natural 
outgrowth of the people of the time. Her fifty years 
have been eventful to herself and her friends. The half 
century that spans her existence is the most wonderful, 
perhaps, of the Christian era, in material development, 
in the diffusion of useful knowledge among men, in the 
betterment of the social conditions of mankind, in the 
advancement of the kingdom that is to be. To all the 
world, it has brought revolution and change : revolution 
in the main has turned forward the wheel of progress; 
change has been, in the providence of the All-w T ise, the 
evolution of the better. What part has Davidson in 
these things? Her career, broken in twain tho' it was 
by the awful chasm from '61 to '65, has been steadily, 
bravely forward. In every movement for the general 
good, in every contest for the maintenance of right, on 
every field where true men have battled for God and 
country, her sons have fought and have fallen in the fore- 
front. Turn back to the '60's upon the dial of time. 
O'er all this sunny land, from the Blue Mountains to the 
sounding sea, the roll of drum and blast of bugle called 
to arms ! White-haired age, of wisdom ripe, commanded 
the young men to the field ; priests to the Almighty pro- 
nounced their benisons upon them; matrons stronger 



10 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

than strong men, bade husband and son defend their 
homes; and forth they went in firm, elastic step, in beau- 
tiful, buoyant youth, in strong and vigorous manhood, 
under the banner of beauty, in the path of duty, into 
the vallev of death. 

" Theirs not to make reply, 
Theirs not to reason why, 
Theirs but to do aud die." 

Davidson men, hundreds of them, took arms for coun- 
try at the call of their states, for they thought their 
state their country, and laid themselves in hecatombs 
upon her altars. From private to lieutenant-general, 
every man a patriot soldier, they poured their blood 
upon every field from Bethel to Appomattox. On every 
hill-top, in every valley from the land of the peaceful 
Perm to the land of the conquering Cortez, their graves 
or their bleaching bones attest their patriotism. 

Davidson College is a principal bulwark of the Church. 
The leaders used to come from Princeton ; for the last 
twenty-five years very many of the foremost churchmen 
come from Davidson. For the future, it seems likely 
that the history of this institution will be the most 
important part of the history of the Church, at least in 
the Carol inas. Our men are vigorous workmen, they 
are valiant soldiers in the Master's cause. They are 
building the walls, they are manning the ramparts of 
Jerusalem; they meet the enemy at every point; they 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 11 

stand upon the turrets and herald the King's commands ; 
they glister upon the white heights of truth and shall 
illume the darkness for the coming day. 

In the state Davidson has illustrated the patriotism 
of the people who laid the foundations of American 
society. 

What is the state? In the broad sense of organized 
society , it is the power ordained of God for the encour- 
agement and preservation of the good and right, for the 
prevention and restraint of the evil and wrong. So con- 
sidered, it includes in its scope all forms of government, 
civil and ecclesiastical, and undertakes to secure the 
glory of God in the happiness of His creatures by the 
conservation and direction of all moral force. The state 
is therefore entitled to the best service of all good men. 
Whatever his profession, every man is a citizen and owes 
a duty to the state as he does to his God, for the state 
is His ordinance for the good of society. 

To us, sons and friends of Davidson, gathered here 
from all parts of the land, this day and time seems a 
grand opportunity to serve our country. We have 
entered upon an era of peace, real peace. The sun of 
liberty shines full and peaceful upon a race of brothers. 
AVe have passed, we have survived with vigor the set- 
tlement of certain national questions and institutions, 
fearfully full of peril. For a ceutury, our fathers and 
we had disputed whether the general government or the 



12 SEMI-CEXTENARY ADDRESSES. 

state, the creature or the creator, was the greater — the 
sword decided the creature is superior. For a long time 
the relation of the states to each other seemed uncertain. 
Its location in some particular quarter or section of the 
country, or the character of its own laws or institutions 
seemed to determine one state superior or inferior to 
another. Within a few years the country has settled down 
upon this truth, that these are thirty-eight free, equal and 
equally sovereign commonwealths, each one the equal of 
every other, and no one debarred for sectional reason 
from full enjoyment of all the immunities and benefits 
of government. This is North Carolina, not the infe- 
rior of Xew York, because it is south of Mason & 
Dixon's line, but the equal of Xew York or any other 
state, because she contitutes a full unit of this great con- 
federacy. 

There is now, perhaps, less unfriendly feeling between 
the different parts of the country than at any time since 
the formation of the government. The Union is a bet- 
ter one, a stronger one by far to-day than it ever was 
before. For once, and we trust for aye, we have one 
country, not two countries at eternal war about African 
slavery. Xo admission is implied that certain states 
fought to maintain human slavery, others to destroy it: 
that was not the main issue. These states contended 
for the right to regulate and control their own affairs, 
including slavery : that was the main issue, slavery the 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 13 

occasion of raising it. Upon this question, the battal- 
ions were against us. Thank God that it is settled and 
settled as it is. There remains no stigma of shame, there 
is no badge of superiority, that I am a Southron, that 
you are a Northman. No true man, no patriot, speaks 
of rebels in this country. The chronic, atrabilious 
howlers of " rebel brigadier," "rebel debt" and "rebel 
this and that," are fast dying off the ramparts of sec- 
tional animosity. We date the era of peace from '65 : 
we begin just now to realize the decadence, the disap- 
pearance of these old splenetics. 

We realize to-day, more fully by far than the soul of 
Brevard or of Jefferson ever conceived, the proof of that 
great declaration, that all men are born free and equal : 
not only born so, but practically so, every man the equal 
of every other man, all fellow-citizens of one common 
country, equal heirs of the noble heritage bequeathed 
by the fathers. 

And yet we have attained this high plane of citizen- 
ship through much tribulation. It has generally been 
that the movement of a people for the right of self- 
government, if it failed, has been branded for a time, 
and sometimes for a long time, as rebellion. Let Wash- 
ington have failed, and he might have been condemned 
as a rebel instead of being honored as the purest of 
patriots and the father of his country. He was a rebel 
till he succeeded, in the world's estimation. 



14 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

But not always thus. History furnishes some splen- 
did examples of patriotism broad enough to include the 
victi with the victor es upon the same honorable plane. 

Wh.en Catherine the Great had suppressed an upris- 
ing of her subjects, and many lives had been sacrificed, 
and the homes and the hearts of her people had been 
burned and scarred, she manifested the wisdom of the 
great ruler by directing her parliament to enact a law 
forever forbidding any one even to refer to the rebellion. 

Charles Sumner, a great leader, a king indeed, but an 
uncrowned king, among the people of a generation now 
just passing, taught them to war against our peculiar 
institutions, taught the centripetal theory of government, 
taught the worst kind of political heresy, as we on this 
side think of it; and yet in the calm sunshine of this day 
of peace,one may dare say here or anywhere that Charles 
Sumner was an honest man, a great man. The honesty of 
the man, the breadth of his statesmanship were nowhere 
in his life more conspicuously illustrated than in the reso- 
lution which he introduced in the Senate of the United 
States, declaring that the names of battles won over fel- 
low-citizens in the late war should be removed from the 
regimental colors and from the army register. And this 
act was condemned as unpatriotic, as an insult to the 
brave soldiers of the Union army : the State of Massa- 
chusetts, which he honored in serving, could not then 
receive such a sentiment, and through its Legislature 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 15 

passed a solemn vote of censure upon him. This hap- 
pened some time ago : we believe Massachusetts could do 
better now. 

No civilized nation, from the republics of antiquity 
down to our time, has thought it wise or patriotic to pre- 
serve in conspicuous and durable form the mementoes 
of victories won over fellow-citizens in civil war. 

When England calls upon her sons to rally to her 
standard, the Irishman has always come forward 
promptly: but the Irishman fighting for Old England 
at Waterloo or at Tel-el-Kebir, saw not on the Red 
Cross floating over him any allusion to the battle of the 
Boyne. 

The Scotch Highlander, bleeding and smoked-be- 
grimed in the trenches of Sevastopol, was not frowned 
upon by a banner which bore upon its folds the name of 
Culloden. 

No German regiment from Saxony or Hanover, charg- 
ing the beetling battlements of Metz or Sedan, was 
reminded that the same black eagle of Prussia had con- 
quered them at Koniggratz. 

And some day, some evil day, should a Southron be 
called to defend his country against a foreign foe, shall 
he be reminded by any inscription upon the star-spang- 
led-banner, that it was under this flag the gun was fired 
that killed his father at Cold Harbor or Gettysburg? 
Let it never be. As citizen or soldier, let every man in 



16 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

this broad land, mother of us all, be the equal and the 
brother of every other man. In the genial sunlight of 
this new day of real peace, let us catch and cherish the 
spirit of trustfulness, and find in it the guaranty of 
brotherhood : a new thing indeed to those of us at least 
whose manhood began in the '60 ? s. 

This happy state of public sentiment is the auspicious 
opportunity to us on the stage of life, and to you, young 
gentlemen, about to enter upon its activities, to serve 
our country, to rebuild and strengthen the muniments 
of liberty, to serve ourselves in doing good to the race, 
to serve God in practicing the gospel of " peace, good- 
will toward men." 

There is a class of political purists who are either bet- 
ter than other men, or possibly more unpractical and 
unwise, a rather small class indeed in this country where 
every man is a sovereign, uncrowned it may be, but all 
the same waiting for the crown to drop upon his brow: 
these people say, and seem to think, there's no good in con- 
cernment about public affairs, that all politics is unmiti- 
gated corruption, and that a decent, honest man should 
wash his hands and keep clear of these things. This 
nondescript class forget that every man is a citizen, claim- 
ing and expecting governmental protection to his own 
sacred rights and privileges, and would relegate the con- 
trol of public affairs to ignorant and selfish partisans. 
Many of these otherwise good men and citizens, from 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 17 

the rostrum, and sometimes from the pulpit, decry the 
politician and confound him with the mere partisan. 
But the politician is, or ought to be, the statesman and 
philosopher: for politics is the science of government. 
Parties, great political parties, form and divide upon the 
fundamental principles and policy of government, but 
partisan leaders sometimes succeed in controlling them 
for personal rather than the public good. The mere 
place-seeker, the spoilsman is the proper object of con- 
tempt to every virtuous citizen : but the politician in 
truth is not a mere place-seeker; we must judge him as 
other men, by the best of his class, by the ideal, not by 
the crooked and degenerate specimen. 

In a country where every man is free-born and charged 
with the responsibility of the ballot, it is his duty to 
study the public interests, to know his own rights too, 
before he can dare maintain them. This country is ours, 
and we are here to stay. Providence has cast our lot 
here, and appointed us a free people, commissioned to 
rule: let us do it intelligently, patriotically and in the 
fear of God. 

Accustomed as we are to the blessings of free insti- 
tutions, we scarcely know and little appreciate them. No 
nation on earth, with perhaps the exception of our 
mother England, has ever enjoyed for so long a time the 
blessings of liberty that have fallen to us. Freedom of 
speech, personal liberty, the absence of compulsory mili- 



18 SEMI-CENTEXAEY ADDRESSES. 

tary service and of compulsory education, the right of 
property in homes and in the fruits of one's labor, free- 
dom from the burdens of unlimited taxation, liberty of 
conscience and religion untaxed tor anybody else's con- 
science and religion: these blessings ami immunities, 
universal an mmon as the air we breathe, are our 

goodly and peculiar heritage. It were well worth the 
highest effort very ■::' conserve sts. 

Subordinate only to the kingdom ut God. bis country is 
entitled to his be - devotion. 

The superficial student il an 1 social science 

and the prating dem ieclared that education 

is the one dependable co - [, the pana- 

cea of national ills. The I ill address of Washing- 

turn ned the testam a new gospel to America, 

is claimed as authority for rine. Let ns quote 

exa that epitome of wisdom. He says: "What- 

ever may led to the influence of refined educa- 

tion on minds of peculiar structure, reason and expe- 
rience both forbid us to expect that morality can prevail 
in exclusion of religious principles." Let it not be 
accepted for a moment as the teaching of any wise man 
that education, in the narrow sei the training and 

often the mere cramming of the intellectual part, is to 
be the savior oi any man or of any nation. The secu- 
rity of our institutions rests nut alone in the intelligence, 
but in the intelligence and virtue of the people. A 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 19 

free people must be intelligent to preserve their freedom ; 
but much more must they also be moral and virtuous; 
for without the predominance of these better conditions, 
history through all the ages has proven that society must 
disintegrate, except it be controlled by the sceptre, of 
despotic power. The world on every continent furnishes 
sad examples of strong despotic governments over igno- 
rant and corrupt masses; but nowhere may you find free 
government secured by the mere intelligence of the peo- 
ple. No more can schools, mere schools, save a country 
than armies and navies : no more can armies and navies 
save us than great cities and fertile fields : schools, armies 
and all combined will neither make nor keep a people 
free. 

Twenty-five centuries ago Greece was the school of 
science and art for the civilized world, and Athens the 
brilliant capital of Greece: but Greece found that her 
learning did not protect her autonomy, and Athens felt 
the touch of decay before the invader trod her soil. They 
fell by the depravity of their people. 

Eighteen centuries ago Rome was the proud mistress of 
the world. Her victorious armies had conquered a great 
part of the Orient, Africa had yielded to her sway, and 
the Spains had been parcelled to her consuls. Caesar had 
passed the Alps and subjugated the Celts of Gaul, aud 
with a zeal and power of conquest limited only by the 
Western Sea, had crossed the German Ocean and planted 



20 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

the Roman eagle upon the soil of Britannia. But 
while this was the power and glory of their legions, the 
people were rotten to the core, steeped in dissipation, 
effeminated by luxurious living, rioting in debauchery, 
and ready for Caesar to pass the Rubicon, tear down the 
feeble fabric of the consulate, set for the world the first 
splendid example of absolute dictator and prepare the 
way for the Roman Empire. 

Within a century, the period of the world's highest 
civilization, as many are wont to claim, when the schools 
of Paris furnished polite literature and language to all 
the courts of Europe, and the splendor of her palaces 
rivalled the greatest magnificence of Rome, the corrupt 
murals and unstable character of the people made it 
easily possible to accomplish the couj.' d'etat which cleared 
away the quasi republic, made the first Napoleon Fir.-t 
Consul, then Emperor* and from that day to this the 
French have known freedom but in name, because they 
are unfit for free government : they have shifted from 
point to point around the restless circle of republic, 
empire, kingdom, republic, true to their national instinct, 
never knowing what they want and never satisfied till 
they get it. The French are not likely to have a stable 
government, unless it be a despotism, until they are a 
better people. Like people, like government. 

National security rests upon national character; na- 
tional, as individual character, rests upon intelligence 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 21 

and morality; and national character, and that alone, is 
the solid rock upon which the temple of liberty may 
stand permanent and secure. 

Ours is not, but approximates, the ideal country. 
Carlylesays: "Find in any country the Ablest Man 
that exists there; raise him to the supreme place and loy- 
ally reverence him; you have a perfect government for 
that country; no ballot-box, parliamentary eloquence, 
voting, constitution-building or other machinery what- 
soever can improve it a whit: a perfect state, an ideal 
country." But the American ideal is a country where 
the people, honest and virtuous and intelligent, them- 
selves are king, sovereign; where their will is law, 
because their will is right. We have not realized this 
ideal. Ideals can never be completely embodied in prac- 
tice. He is a foolish malcontent who would "measure 
by the scale of perfection the meagre product of reality." 
We are building towards the ideal. No mason builds 
the wall perfectly perpendicular; that is a mathematical 
impossibility : but he attains a certain sufficient degree of 
perpendicularity and the wall stands. But if he sway 
too much from the perpendicular, or worse, if he throw 
plummet and line away and pile brick on brick without 
regard, the law of gravitation will soon tumble him and 
his wall into fatal chaos. 

How is our building of a country? 



22 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

We laid our foundation upon the idea of the sover- 
eignty of the people, because we believed the people able 
and wise enough to be sovereigns. Not exactly true, 
we have found that. That bottom rock was not a perfect 
granite. But upon this foundation we began, piling our 
thirteen pillars, afterwards more, in gold and silver, in 
brick and stone, in hay and stubble : in so many contigu- 
ous lines, not indeed separate, nor indeed united. In 
some pillars, we built slavery, states-rights; in others we 
built abolition, federalism. These materials were elec- 
trically repellent. The lines grew divergent; the cracks 
became yawning chasms and the structure had well-nigh 
fallen, and with it the hope of true popular govern- 
ment on the earth : but it did not fall. The great excres- 
cent boulder of African slavery was dynamited off; that 
restored equilibrium. The bond of a stronger union 
corrects the separative tendency of the parts; they are 
coherent as well as contiguous; they are interdependent 
and intersupporting. 

Taking the facts as they are, the organic form of gov- 
ernment is better to-day than it used to be, because it is 
better able to secure the protection of individual and 
social rights. Whether it shall continue to expand into 
still nobler proportions, illustrating more perfectly the 
world's sublime ideal of free government, depends 
mainly upon the foundation stone, the character of the 
American people. If this stone shall crumble or careen, 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 23 

if the foreign tide that surges about undermine its set- 
tlement or transmute its character, then our temple is in 
ruins. 

But we have faith in God and in the people: not that 
they are wise enough to maintain and improve this sys- 
tem of government; but that, under His providence, they 
and the country and the world are growing better. Me- 
liorism is the true philosophy of the situation; optim- 
ism is too much of it. 

We find then, as we see it, a promise, not a guaranty of 
future good to our country. We would trust the One 
All-wise, who is managing us, as He is directing the 
universe, to ultimate good and glory. Lifted up here 
between the seas, this is and is to be the greatest field of 
the world's development. By its natural resources and 
its people, by their customs and their government, the 
nations of the earth are drawn toward us. The crowded 
come for room, the hungry come for food, the landless 
come for homes, the oppressed come for liberty, the 
anarchists come to destroy all homes and all property 
and all law : from Germany, some socialists; from Eng- 
land and France, some communists; from Russia, some 
nihilists; from Ireland, some turbulent; from Italy, 
some fatally vicious; from the Celestial Empire, the fos- 
silized heathen; from the isles of the sea, from all the 
earth, they come, millions of them. Shall they drop as 
snowflakes upon the side of the great rock-ribbed mount- 



24 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

ain to melt into its bosom and enrich it? Or, some far- 
away time, shall they form an avalanche to furrow its sur- 
face, to pulverize its salients, to obliterate its landmarks? 
Sometime, as before, w r e shall have earthquakes, it may 
be, that w r ill shake it to the centre, that will tumble the 
jagged boulders to the base but to enlarge and fortify its 
circumference. The red-hot granites may leap from its 
bowels across the sulphurous heavens; the lava of blood 
may sw'eep and enrich its valleys again. The fearful 
touch of the Omnipotent may be needed. But, all the 
same, we are building toward the stars; and with abiding 
confidence in Him who directs their courses,-we believe 
that we shall remain and grow greater and grander 

" Till the war-drum throbs no longer and the battle-fla^s are furled, 
In the Parliament of maD, the Federation of the world." 



AH HISTORICAL SKETCH 



OF 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE, 

PREPARED AND READ AT THE 

FIRST SEMI-CENTENARY CELEBRATION, HELD AT DAVID- 
SON COLLEGE, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 1887. 



The resolution of the Trustees providing for these 
semi-centenary exercises directs that they shall consist, 
in part, "of an historical sketch of the College for its 
first fifty years of life." This phraseology is well chosen, 
for it recognizes the important fact that Davidson College 
has a "life," and that its life has been prolonged through 
half a century of growth and usefulness, and that to-day 
its vigor and popularity give us the pleasing assurance 
that instead of decrepitude and decay there is a reasona- 
ble prospect of its life being measured by centuries of 
increasing power for good. 

The life of the College is, first of all, that vital prin- 
ciple imparted to it by the faith, the prayers, the contri- 
butions and the nurturing care of its pious founders and 
2 



26 SEMI-CEXTEXARY ADDRESSES. 

faithful guardians. A brief sketch of the devout and 
earnest Presbyterian pioneers who settled the Piedmont 
region of the Carolinas. had we time to record it. would 
give us an instructive insight into this primary animat- 
ing principle. 

The history of education in North Carolina prior to 
the arrival of the Scotch-Irish is very meagre and unin- 
teresting. But upon the arrival of these immigrants. 
about the middle of the eighteenth century, a line of 
Presbyterian churches was established in the hill coun- 
try from Virginia to South Carolina, and along with 
these churches there sprang up a number of classical 
schools and academies, furnishing educational facilities 
to the people in the wilderness. Account for it as you 
will, the Presbyterians have been the leaders in the great 
work of education in America and in the world. In 
the early days of Christianity, when the Presbyterianism 
of the Xew Testament was still vigorous. Alexandria. 
Antioch, Caesarea and Jerusalem had their schools of 
learning. Tradition says that the Evangelist Mark was 
the founder of the Christian School of Alexandria. At 
all events, here taught, in the second century. Pantaenus 
and Clement, and in the third century. Origen. Icolmkill, 
on the Isle of Iona. and Lindisfarne. on the eastern coast 
of England, in the days of the Saxon Heptarchy, were not 
monasteries in the Romish sense of the term, but Chris- 
tian universities, where learning was cultivated, whose 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 27 

Abbots were college presidents and whose Monks were 
either teachers or missionaries. At the Reformation 
Geneva had her school, where Calvin expounded and 
Beza lectured. Scotland had, soon after the Reforma- 
tion, not only her great universities, but her parochial 
schools for the education of her children. And though 
Protestant Ireland had no universities of her own, she 
freely patronized those of her sister, Scotland, for the 
education of her ministers and aspiring young men. 
And when the Scotch and Scotch-Irish immigrants set- 
tled in this country they soon came to regard schools as 
only second in importance to their churches. When- 
ever a preacher was settled over any of the churches 
there usually followed a good classical school, taught 
either by the minister or some one approved by him, 
where pupils could learn the Latin tongue — the lan- 
guage of Western Christianity — and the Greek — the 
original language of the New Testament, as well as the 
mathematics, philosophy and the liberal arts and sciences. 
Prominent among these schools in North Carolina 
may be mentioned those of Sugar Creek, Providence, 
Rocky River, Poplar Tent, Centre, Thyatira and Beth- 
any, in what then comprised Mecklenburg and Rowan 
counties. Further east were the schools of Dr. David 
Caldwell, in Guilford; Wm. Bingham, in New Han- 
over; Henry Patillo, in Granville, and David Kerr, in 
Cumberland. 



28 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

In South Carolina the latter half of the eighteenth 
century produced a classical school in " the Waxhaws," 
from which ten or twelve ministers proceeded; one in 
Spartanburg, taught by Rev. James Gilleland ; one in 
Bethel congregation, taught by Rev. Robert McCulloh ; 
McMullen's school in Fairforest, Hill's school in Salem, 
the Williamsburg Academy and Rev. Joseph Alexan- 
der's school on Bullock's Creek. 

In the midst of this region, but somewhat previous 
to the establishment of a number of these schools, was 
made the first effort to organize a college in western 
North Carolina. The Colonial Legislature, held in 
New Bern, in December, 1770, granted a charter to 
" Queen's College, in the town of Charlotte." This 
act was twice adopted by the Legislature and twice 
repealed by royal proclamation, probably because it did 
not provide that the master of "Queen's College" 
should be of the Established Church of England. But 
the College, or "Museum," got along for several years 
without a charter. 

In 1777 the Legislature of the State of North Caro- 
lina granted it a charter under the name of "Liberty 
Hall Academy." This name has a peculiar significance 
when coupled with the tradition that it was in its rooms 
that Dr. Ephraim Brevard wrote the celebrated Meck- 
lenburg Declaration of Independence in 1775. The 
Trustees named in the charter were as follows : Isaac 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 29 

Alexander, M. D., President; Thomas Polk, Abraham 
Alexander, Thomas Neal, Waightstill Avery, Ephraim 
Brevard, John Simpson, John McKnitt Alexander, 
Adlai Osborne, with Rev. Messrs. David Caldwell, James 
Edmonds, Thomas Reese, Samuel E. MeCorkle, Thomas 
H. McCaule and James Hall — all, I think, Presbyte- 
rians. 

The Trustees elected Dr. McWhorter, of New Jersey, 
its first president, and upon his failure to accept, in 1778 
they chose Mr. Robert Brownfield, of Mecklenburg 
county, to conduct the school for a year. The next 
year Dr. McWhorter took charge of the Academy, and 
a goodly number of students assembled for instruction. 
Owing, however, to the invasion of Lord Cornwallis in 
the autumn of 1780, the exercises of the school were 
suspended, and never resumed. 

After the close of the Revolutionary war the General 
Assembly of North Carolina passed an act removing 
Liberty Hall to Rowan county, at or near Salisbury, 
with a new Board of Trustees. Prominent among these 
Trustees was the Rev. Samuel E. MeCorkle, D. D., who 
about this time established a classical school near Thya- 
tira Church, which he called Zion-Parnassus Academy, 
and which ran a successful career for about twenty years. 
Nothing more is heard of " Liberty Hall," and " Zion- 
Parnassus" was its most direct successor. 



30 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

It was forty years after this when our people fully 
awoke to a sense of their error in allowing the advan- 
tages of a home college slip from their grasp. In Sep- 
tember, 1820, a convention was held in Lincolnton, N. 
C, representing a large area of country in both the Caro- 
linas, in which it was resolved to undertake the work of 
establishing a college in this region. That convention 
named the proposed institution " Western College," 
appointed a Board of Trustees, and applied to the Leg- 
islature of North Carolina for a charter, which was 
granted. The College was to be located "somewhere to 
the south-west of the Yadkin River." The reason for 
chartering "Western College" was declared to be that 
"the more western counties of the State are distant from 
Chapel Hill, which renders it inconvenient for their 
youth to prosecute their education there." The Trus- 
tees, who were to be a close corporation, without any 
ecclesiastical control or oversight, were as follows : Rev. 
James McRee, George L. Davidson, Thomas G. Polk, 
Rev. Samuel C. Caldwell, Joseph Pickett, Rev. John 
M. Wilson, Isaac T. Avery, John Nesbit, John M. 
Greenlee, Rev. John Robinson, John Phifer, Montford 
Stokes, Robert H. Burton, Lawson Henderson, Rev. 
Humphrey Hunter, Rev. Henry Kerr, Meshack Frank- 
lin, Samuel Davidson, John McEntire, Rev. Robert J. 
Miller, Thomas Lenoir, Rev. Joseph D. Kilpatrick, 
James Patton, John Culpepper and Charles Stook. 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 31 

These Trustees met from time to time until the sum- 
mer of 1824, when they finally abandoned the project. 
Among the reasons assigned for the failure the following 
are prominent, viz.: "An endeavor to unite too many 
discordant interests," "disagreement about location," 
"fear that certain teachers of repute in the country 
would have a place in it," and "opposition on the part 
of the friends of the University to the foundation of 
another seat of learning." 

But while the scheme in that form was abandoned, 
the hopes that were kindled, and the arguments by 
which they were sustained, slumbered still in many 
hearts, ready at any moment to awake to new life and 
bear precious fruit in another form. Quite a number 
of young men, full of hope and enterprise, had entered 
the ministry of Concord Presbytery, while "Western 
College" was trying to live, or within a few years after 
its untimely interment. When these young men had 
achieved position and influence, by a dozen years of 
experience, they determined to re-open and re-agitate the 
college building subject. Seeing the rock on which the 
former enterprise had been wrecked, they no longer pro- 
posed to unite discordant interests, or make room in the 
Faculty for prominent educators, but to promote the 
cause of sound education under such control as would 
insure, not only literary and scientific culture, but also 
pure morality, scriptural piety and orthodox faith. 



32 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

This, it was confidently believed, could be assured only 
by placing the College under the control of a body that 
was responsible, not to a miscellaneous Legislature, nor 
merely at the bar of public opinion, but to the courts of 
an orthodox church. Other institutions may be sound 
in faith and morals, but an ecclesiastical college must be 
sound and safe as long as the controlling church is 
sound. In such a college it is impossible for a professor 
to teach doctrines undermining the foundations of morals 
and religion without speedy and summary ejectment, 
Probably one of the most hopeless tasks in the world 
would be an effort to hoodwink, or bribe into silence or 
connivance, a select body of educated Presbyterian 
ministers and elders who recognize no earthly superiors, 
who give their supervision from love alone, and who 
hold themselves accountable to God alone for their offi- 
cial acts. 

Accepting the leading idea of a denominational col- 
lege, neither sectarian nor exclusive, but catholic in 
spirit, the friends of Christian education determined to 
found an institution at once accessible, reliable, cheap 
and thorough. It could be made accessible by choosing 
a site for it in the midst of the Scotch-Irish population 
residing between the Yadkin and Catawba Rivers. It 
could be made reliable by placing it under the control 
of the Presbyteries. It could be made thorough by 
electing to its chairs the most scholarly men that could 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 33 

be obtained in the Presbyterian Church. It could, it 
was fondly hoped, be made cheap by adopting the 
"Manual Labor System" then so much mooted in edu- 
cational circles, and put into practice in several Northern 
colleges. According to this "system" the students 
would be required to labor on the College farm or gar- 
den, or at some approved trade, for several hours each 
day, and receive compensation therefor by a correspond- 
ing reduction on their board bill at the Steward's Hall. 
In this way it was supposed that the hardy sons of small 
farmers could lessen the expenses of their own education, 
and the pampered sons of the wealthy would learn to 
practice, perhaps to love, useful labor. It was thus to 
be a kind of rudimentary Institute of Technology. 
Such desires, plans and purposes were silently seething 
in the public mind for some years previous, but the first 
ripple of the incoming tide that we can detect in the 
Presbytery's records is dated March 12, 1835. The 
Presbytery of Concord was convened at Prospect 
Church, in Rowan county, about seven miles from this 
spot, when the Rev. Robert Hall Morrison, as tradition 
asserts, offered the following paper: 

"Presbytery, taking into consideration the importance of a more 
general diffusion of useful knowledge, and the expediency of adopting 
some system of sound and thorough education, that may be accessible 
to all classes of the community, and having heard with pleasure that 
the Manual Labor System, as far as it has been tried, promises the 
most happy results in training up youth to virtuous and industrious 
habits, with well cultured minds, unanimously 



34 



SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 



"Resolved, That this Presbytery, deeply impressed with the importance 
of securing the means of education to young men, within our bounds, 
of hopeful piety and talents, preparatory to the gospel ministry, under- 
take (in humble reliance upon the blessing of God) the establishment 
of a Manual Labor School ; and that a committee be appointed to report 
at the next meeting of Presbytery the best measures for its accomplish- 
ment and the most favorable places for its location." See Minutes of 
Concord Presbytery, Vol. Ill, p. 107, copied edition. 

This was the germinal resolution. Mr. Morrison was 
made chairman of the committee. Various other com- 
mittees were appointed and reported in due order, but 
nothing tangible was reached until the committee on the 
purchase of lands for a site reported, in August follow- 
ing, that they had contracted for four hundred and ninety- 
six acres of land, with William Lee Davidson, for which 
they were to pay him the sum of $1,521 by the 1st of 
January, 1836. At the same time Rev. Mr. Morrison 
reported that he had obtained for the College subscrip- 
tions to the amount of $18,000. Rev. P. J. Sparrow 
also reported subscriptions amounting to $12,392, a total 
of $30,392 obtained by these two gentlemen in the space 
of five months. On the next day, August 26, 1835, it 
was " resolved that the Manual Labor Institution, which 
we are about to build, be called ' Davidson College/ as 
a tribute to the memory of that distinguished and excel- 
lent man, Gen. William Davidson, who, in the ardor 
of patriotism, fearlessly contending for the liberty of his 
country, fell (universally lamented) in the battle of 
Cowan's Ford." 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 35 

At the same meeting Rev. Samuel Williamson was 
directed to visit Bethel Presbytery, in South Carolina, 
and invite the co-operation of that body. In a commu- 
nication dated October 10, 1835, he reports that 
Bethel Presbytery had accepted the invitation. In pro- 
cess of time Morganton Presbytery, then embracing the 
region west of the Catawba River, also agreed to co-op- 
erate, and under the joint care of these three Presbyte- 
ries the Manual Labor College, named Davidson, was 
launched upon the sea of trials and vicissitudes. It 
would weary, without edifying, to recite the resolutions 
and plans that were adopted, the committees that were 
appointed, the presidents and professors that were elected 
in these initial proceedings. Let us notice only those 
that proved efficient as factors in the grand result. 

In the fall of the same year, 1835, arrangements were 
made to begin the erection of the necessary buildings in 
the summer of 1836. A site was chosen on the pur- 
chased tract of land in Mecklenburg county, within a 
half mile of the Iredell line, on a high wooded ridge; 
and so accurately was the College Chapel located that 
the rain-drops falling on the western side of the roof 
run into the Catawba River, while those falling on the 
eastern side are carried into the Yadkin, or Pee Dee 
River — the building thus standing in the very centre of 
the North Carolina Mesopotamia. 



36 SEMI-CENTENAKY ADDKESSES. 

It is difficult to get an adequate conception of the zeal 
and enthusiasm that pervaded the country in regard to 
this College fifty years ago. The raising of over $30,000 
in the space of only five months, in a few surrounding 
counties, is a striking phenomenon. Many of the sub- 
scriptions were made by plain farmers, living on small 
plantations, and by ministers supported by meagre sala- 
ries. It is remembered by some still living, that Rev. 
Wm. A. Hall, of Mocksville, about this time was 
bereaved -of a little daughter named Julia, and that 
shortly after her death he informed his family that he 
had subscribed one hundred dollars to Davidson College. 
The prudent wife remonstrated, saying that the sum 
was greater than they could afford. The devout husband 
replied that their Heavenly Father had relieved them of 
the expense of rearing and educating their darling child 
by taking her to Himself, and now they could give the 
cost of her support to the cause of the Lord. And it 
was as "the cause of the Lord" that this College was 
regarded by those earnest men. It may not be amiss to 
state that the sister of little Julia afterwards resided here 
a number of years as the wife of the professor of chem- 
istry. 

It is also remembered that some of the people, espe- 
cially those of Third Creek Church, contributed labor 
instead of money, and taking their wagons, teams and 
servants, camped here in the woods, and spent several 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 37 

weeks in clearing off the grounds, building fences and 
in making and hauling brick. 

Rev. John Williamson, pastor of Hopewell Church, 
in Mecklenburg county, assisted by Rev. Messrs. Henry 
N. Pharr, Cyrus Johnston, Albertus L. Watts, Daniel 
A. Penick, Walter S. Pharr, James D. Hall, J. M. H. 
Adams, Andrew Y. Lockridge and several active Ruling 
Elders, constituted the building committee, drew the 
plans and arranged the position of the buildings. Pre- 
cious is the memory of these devout and earnest men, 
and it is fitting that they should be held in everlasting 
remembrance. I see one of them, Rev. James D. Hall, 
on the platform to-day, and I tender him the thanks of 
all for his services fifty years ago, and our congratulations 
that God has spared him to see this happy day. Most 
of these men were ministers of the Gospel, who con- 
ceived, planned, endowed and controlled the infant col- 
lege, laid its foundations in faith and prayer and invoked 
upon it the blessing of the covenant-keeping God, who 
kept it alive and flourishing while many other institu- 
tions were suspended. Under the direction of these gen- 
tlemen the Steward's Hall, the President's house — now 
constituting a portion of Professor Martin's residence — 
the language professor's house, now standing somewhat 
dilapidated near the Philanthropic Hall, and known by 
the sobriquet of " Tammany," with four blocks of 
brick dormitories along the road on the west side of the 



38 SEMI-CEXTEXABY ADDRESSES. 

campus, iu a line with those still standing north of the 
Eurnenean Hall, were erected. The "Chapel/* still 
standing in the campus, was not erected till later on. and 
religious services were conducted the first year in the 
dining-room of the Steward's Hall. About the same 
time Eev. Walter S. Pharr erected the large wooden 
structure now known as " Danville." to be rented by 
suitable persons desiring to reside at the College. 

With these accommodations, the exercises of the Col- 
lege opened with sixty-six students. March the first. 
1837. The teaching force consisted of Rev. Robert 
Hall Morrison. Pre-ident and Professor of Mental and 
Moral Philosophy ; Rev. Patrick J. Sparrow. Professor 
of Ancient Languages, and Mortimer D. Johnston. A. 
M.. Tutor in Mathematics. 

Dr. Morrison was a native of Cabarrus county. X. C, 
born September 8. 1798, and was graduated from the 
University of North Carolina in the class of 1818. He 
was ordained pastor of Providence Church. X. C. April 
21. 1821. removed to the Fayetteville Church in 1822. 
and returned to Sugar Creek Church, near Charlotte, in 
1827. The town of Charlotte was then comprised in 
the Sugar Creek congregation, and constituted a part of 
Dr. Morrison's charge. At the opening of the College he 
was elected, by the three Presbyteries of Concord. Bethel 
and Morgan ton. the first President, and he removed 
to the College in February. 1837. where he faithfully 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 39 

and successfully accomplished the difficult task of organ- 
izing the infant institution. In 1838 the University of 
North Carolina conferred upon him the honorary degree 
of Doctor of Divinity. 

In 1840, in consequence of impaired health, Dr. Mor- 
rison resigned the presidency and retired to his farm in 
Lincoln county, North Carolina, where he still resides, 
beloved, honored and revered. His noble work in behalf 
of Christian education, begun more than fifty years ago, 
stands here to-day a monument to his wisdom and phil- 
anthropy. A grateful people will not soon forget his 
eminent services. More than this delicacy forbids us to 
utter concerning the chief agent in founding Davidson 
College. 

Rev. P. J. Sparrow was Professor of Ancient Lan- 
guages from 1837 to 1840, and was reputed one of the 
best linguists in the State. He was a native of Lin- 
colnton, N. C, born in 1802, and received his academic 
education, in part, at Providence Academy, under Rev. 
Samuel Williamson. Though Dr. Sparrow never en- 
joyed the advantages of college training, his wonderful 
talent and devotion to study more than compensated for 
the deficiencies of early instruction. His pulpit per- 
formances were of a high order, and on a wider plane 
would have given him a national reputation as a theo- 
logian and sacred orator. He resigned his professorship 
in 1840, and shortly afterwards became President of 



40 SEVI-CEXTEXABY ADDRESSEE 



Hampden-Sidney College in Virginia. After a few 
years in Virginia, he removed to Alabama, and died at 
Cahaba, in that State. November 10. 1867. 

Mortimer D. Johnston. A. M.. was a native of Rowan 
count v. X. C.. and was graduated from Jefferson Col- 
lege. Pa.; became first Tutor and first Professor of 
Mathematics in Davidson College, serving in that chair 
from 1837 to 1853. He was a good mathematician, a 
ripe scholar and a devout Christian. He was exceedingly 
modest and diffident — characteristics of which the stu- 
dents often availed themselves when they desired to 
escape the performance of unwelcome duties. Resign- 
ing his position in 1853. he spent the remainder of his 
life in teaching and other employments, in Charlotte. X. 
C. where he died. 

These three constituted the first corps of instruction 
who were held responsible for the teaching and govern- 
ment of the College. But in these years there was 
another functionary almost as important as the President. 
This officer was called ''Steward and Farmer." He 
not only managed the College boarding-house, but was 
superintendent of the College farm and garden, and had 
each one of the students under his control, as a laborer, 
for several hours each working dav of the week. The 
first Steward was Mr. Abel Graham, of Rowan county, 
and after the first year Mr. Thomas H. Robinson, of 
Cabarrus county. 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 41 

THE MANUAL LABOR SYSTEM, 

as already stated, was a component element of the Col- 
lege machinery for the first three or four years of its 
existence, and deserves a passing notice. According to 
this system some of the students who professed skill in 
the use of tools were allowed to labor in mechanical 
pursuits, especially carpentry, while the remainder were 
divided into three grades, as to proficiency and strength, 
and into two or more classes, as to time of labor on farm, 
garden or clearings. The first, or stronger grade, was 
to receive a reduction of three dollars per month on 
their board bills, and the second grade a reduction of 
two dollars and forty cents per month, while the feebler 
third grade got a reduction of only one dollar and eighty 
cents per month, for three hours of labor a day. 

In 1840 the hours of labor were reduced from three 
to two hours a day, and the remuneration received a 
corresponding reduction. In 1841 still another change 
was made according to which each student was to receive 
an allotment of one-half acre of ground, or more if he 
were ambitious in that line, to be cultivated at his own 
expense and discretion, but only in hours of recreation. 
The Faculty, however, were to make a weekly inspection 
of the lots, criticise the stvle of cultivation and encour- 
age the youthful farmers to high and noble efforts. The 
process, I presume, was somewhat analogous to the more 



42 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

modern criticising of literary exercises, but I could not 
learn from the Records of the Trustees or Minutes of 
the Faculty whether the professors valued and marked 
the manual exercises or whether the grade mark of the 
half-acre lots entered into the final average in determin- 
ing the student's rank; or whether there was a field 
monitor as well as a class-room monitor. The records 
are silent upon these interesting points, but perhaps some 
of the venerable graduates of 1842 or '43, now sitting 
before me, could throw some light upon this obscure 
piece of history. Nor do the archives of the College 
show whether any of the students selected their half- 
acres, how they cultivated them or how they disposed 
of the proceeds. The probability is that in this memo- 
rable term of 1841-'42 the Manual Labor System, like 
the famous " one-horse-shay," broke down in all its parts 
at once, and forever disappeared from view. And yet 
there are some traditionary fossils stowed away on the 
lower shelves of the memory of ancient graduates that 
may furnish a few minutes of entertainment to the newly 
fledged graduates of these busy modern days. For 
instance, say at nine o'clock A. M., the "Steward and 
Farmer" would step out of the hall door, or maybe on 
the front steps of the Chapel, and give a ringing blast of 
his trumpet, sending its reverberations through the leafy 
aisles of these grand old campus oaks, and penetrating 
to the inmost recesses of each quiet dormitory from 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE, 43 

No. 1 to No. 16. Class No. 1, clad in working apparel, 
would assemble tumultuously on the campus, and file 
off, with many a merry jest or smothered anathema, to 
the shops, fields or clearings, there to kill time as best 
they could, until called from labor to refreshment at 
high twelve. At one p. m. another trumpet blast would 
burst upon sleepy, post-prandial ears, and forth from the 
shady room and musty tomes into the bright sunshine, 
and shimmering July atmosphere, Class No. 2 would 
saunter slowly forth. Later on Class No. 3 would 
emerge and labor in the lengthening shadows of the 
summer evening. As board at the Steward's Hall was 
only thirty or thirty-five dollars per session of five 
months, the proceeds of all this unwelcome toil amounted 
in the case of a first grade laborer to not quite one-half 
of his board bill. At the same time the reports of 
investigating committees showed that the College w T as 
sinking money by the operation, and so proving the 
system a financial failure. 

Many causes combined to produce this result. Semi- 
compulsory labor, on a large scale, is necessarily unprof- 
itable. To be remunerative, labor must be either skilled 
and voluntary, or else absolutely compulsory. But in 
this case the Steward was in a dilemma. He could 
neither chastise nor dismiss his laborers. And though 
they could not organize a strike for fewer hours or higher 
wages, it was soon discovered that the young men held 



44 SEMI-GENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

to the unproved theory that manual labor is a curse, 
with as much tenacity as modern scientists hold to the 
unproved theory of genetic evolution. They felt that 
they had come to college rather to learn how to 
escape the dusty toil of the fields and not to have the 
chain of hard labor riveted on them. Their experience 
proved that three hours of rough farm-work, in the 
morning, begat such fatigue and drowsiness as disquali- 
fied them for afternoon study, and the afternoon 
toil was even worse for evening studies. Between faith- 
ful labor and hard study life became a burden, the 
temper soured and the freshness and elasticity of youth 
crushed. The reports of the Faculty show that some 
of the town boys soon deserted and never returned to 
college again. 

Nor could the high-mettled student help regarding 
himself as under the eye of an overseer, though the office 
was disguised under a more elegant name. To cheat the 
overseer out of their labor, if practicable, was almost as 
much an instinct on the College farm as it was on the cot- 
ton and rice plantations of the South, with the added zest 
that there was infinite fun in the thing, and it called for 
the exercise of superior adroitness. It could be made 
to appear a most natural thing, by an awkward stroke, 
to break the handle of a hoe, or a mattock, to drive the 
edge of a club-axe against a convenient stone, or to select 
an adjacent stump, green and tough, and drive a plow, 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 45 

full tilt, against its stubborn roots. Then something was 
sure to break, and it lay within the range of possibility 
that the breaker would be sent to the shop to superin- 
tend the repair of the fracture. That was so much time 
gained for rest. 

Now if there is any venerable graduate here to-day 
who can say quorum pars fui, and is disposed to dispute 
the literal accuracy of these statements, your historian 
can only say that these were the traditions current when 
he was a student here some six or eight years after the 
demise of the Manual Labor System — dim traditions 
whispered in the cool summer evenings under the um- 
brageous canopy of yon venerable oaks, at a time when 
a new generation of students rejoiced that the lines had 
fallen to them in pleasanter places, or that they had 
happened on more delightful times. Doubtless many 
bright bits of coloring, many little exaggerations and 
embellishments were required to construct a story that 
would make admiring Freshmen open their eyes with 
mute amazement. But such were the traditions cur- 
rent in the closing years of the fourth decade of this 
.century. 

The experience of four years sufficed to prove that 
the tastes and habits of the lover of knowledge cannot, 
as a rule, be harmoniously blended with the habits and 
tastes of the farm laborer. And of all persons in the 
world to detect the incongruity, commend me to the 



46 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

bright, quick-witted, fun-loving college student, who 
would infinitely rather chop logic than wield the wood- 
man's axe against tough post-oak trees. To extract the 
cube root of any quantity in an infinite series has some- 
thing about it to stimulate the intellect and excite the 
pleasurable emotions that arise from a noble conquest; 
but to extract the roots of nettles, burdock, or of the 
ever-recurring sassafras sprout, is unceasingly and infi- 
nitely detestable to the aspiring mind. To dig out a 
Greek root from the remotest branch of a verb in mi is 
pleasant employment compared with the sensation expe- 
rienced when a recalcitrant root of some tough hickory 
or hardy dogwood returns in full force against the 
unprotected tibia after its elasticity has been tested to 
the utmost by the advancing plowshare. 

And yet, whatever may have been the practical 
defects of the Manual Labor System, in the providence 
of God it subserved a valuable purpose. Indeed it is 
questionable whether the College could have been estab- 
lished without it. The labor feature constituted an 
attraction and a watch-word, without which the first 
agents might have failed to gain the attention and the- 
confidence of the original contributors. Many would be 
disposed to aid in the establishment of a college, where 
they fondly hoped their sons could work their way 
through, whose sympathies could not have been other- 
wise enlisted. 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 47 

Nor was there any intentional deception in the advo- 
cacy of this system ; for its authors were bona fide 
believers in its practicability. In fact, the popular mind, 
far and wide, was agitated about this system, very much 
as it was about the Morus Mutticaulis tree and silk cul- 
ture about the same time. Indeed, the silk culture 
industry came very near being engrafted into the College 
at one time, for the venerable Trustees directed the Presi- 
dent to investigate the silk business and report upon the 
expediency of introducing it. intg.the curriculum. And 
I am not sure that some of these ancient brethren did not 
spend their hours of labor in hatching and feeding silk- 
worms and gathering cocoons, for I distinctly remember 
that a number of Morus Multicaulis trees were growing 
on the. College grounds in my college-days, and one of 
them is standing near "Tammany" this very day. 

But at all events the labor experiment successfully 
dissipated the popular dream of a cheap and at the same 
time thorough course of literary training, and taught 
the people that a finished education is an expensive priv- 
ilege and a costly luxury. The expense must be met 
somehow — either by personal payment, by endowment, 
by founding scholarships, or by friendly or ecclesiastical 
beneficiary aid. Or in the absence of all these, the cour- 
ageous youth who has in him the stuff that men are made 
of, may slowly and painfully push his own way by alter- 
nate labor, teaching and study, and be all the better man 



48 SEMI-CEXTEXARY ADDRESSES. 

for the effort. In point of fact, many have already done 
this, and with a suitable college accessible to him, any 
youth who deserves to be promoted to the grade of an 
educated man can win the privilege for himself, unless 
he is encumbered by burdens other than the care of him- 
self. 

THE CHARTER. 

Though the College buildings were erected and the 
exercises commenced in March, 1837, it was not until 
December 28, 1838, that the charter was ratified by 
the General Assembly of the State of Xorth Carolina. 
By direction of the Presbyteries of Concord, Mor- 
ganton and Bethel, President Morrison went to Raleigh, 
and with considerable difficulty obtained a charter to run 
for fifty years, and allowing the corporation to hold real 
and personal property not exceeding in value two hun- 
dred thousand dollars. The difficulty lay in the unwill- 
ingness of the legislators to charter an institution under 
ecclesiastical control, and thus to effect a kind of com- 
bination between Church and State. They had not for- 
gotten that a State Church once existed in Xorth Caro- 
lina, and they did not desire to repeat the experiment. 

The names of the original Trustees were as follows, 
viz. : John Robinson, Ephraini Davidson, Thomas L. 
Cowan, Robert H. Burton, Robert H. Morrison, John 
Williamson, Joseph W. Ross, Wm. L. Davidson, Charles 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 49 

W. Harris, Walter S. Pharr, Cyrus L. Hunter, John D. 
Graham, Robert Potts, James M. H. Adams, David A. 
Caldwell, William B. Wood, Moses W. Alexander, D. 
C. Mebane, James W. Osborne, Henry N. Pharr, John 
M. Wilson, P. J. Sparrow, James G. Torrence, John L. 
Daniel, Pierpont E. Bishop, George W. Dunlap and 
John Springs — twenty-eight in all, with the privilege of 
electing twenty more by the three associated Presbyteries 
and by such other Presbyteries in the State of North 
Carolina as may hereafter be associated with them. 

The administration of Dr. Morrison embraced the 
formative period of the College. A course of study was 
to be arranged, laws for the government of the Faculty 
and students were to be provided, the classes were to be 
formed, text-books were to be selected, and the College 
was to be projected on its course of life and usefulness. 
A glance at the first list of students shows that only 
twenty out of sixty-six ever reached the point of gradu- 
ation. Probably few of these early students were ade- 
quately prepared to enter college or possessed the quali- 
ties of mind and morals needed to insure success. Many 
of them doubtless floated in upon the swollen tide of 
enthusiasm that was raised by the advent of the new, 
cheap and popular literary institution in Western Caro- 
lina. It was with such a mass of discordant and crude 
elements that Dr. Morrison was called to grapple, and, 
if possible, bring order out of chaos. Faithfully and 
3 



50 SEMI-CENTENABY ADDRESSES. 

successfully did he perform his work, but it was by the 
sacrifice of his health. At the end of three years, in 
1840, he had his first class of eleven prepared for gradu- 
ation. The classes of 1840 and 1841 may be referred 
to Dr. Morrison's administration, and they numbered 
twenty-three graduates, with one hundred and eighty- 
five students matriculated — an average of eleven and a 
half graduates and forty-six and one-half matriculates 
to the year. 

In 1841 began the administration of Rev. Samuel 
Williamson, D. D., which lasted till 1854, a period of 
thirteen years. During this time there were usually but 
two professors besides the President. For two years 
Thomas M. Kirkpatrick, a graduate of the College, acted 
as tutor, and during the last three years Rev. E. F. 
Rockwell was Professor of Natural Sciences. But for 
the greater part of these years Dr. "Williamson taught 
Rhetoric, Logic, Natural Philosophy, Mineralogy, Geol- 
ogv, Chemistry, Evidences of Christianity, Moral Phil- 
osophy, Metaphysics, Political Economy, and Interna- 
tional Law, besides officiating as President and pastor of 
the College Church, attending to all the correspondence 
and outside management of affairs. And to crown all, so 
meagre was the income of the College from its endowment 
that it was necessary for the President to get and to keep, 
at all hazards, every paying student that could be discov- 
ered, while from the very start of his administration he had 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 51 

to contend with an influential element in the Presbyte- 
ries which was opposed to him and his policy. The bare 
contemplation of such a herculean task is sufficient to 
appall any man not cast in a heroic mould. But Dr. 
Williamson was cast in a heroic mould, and for thirteen 
years, nearly twice the length of the term of any other 
President, he kept up the College and held his opponents 
at bay. All honor to the brave old leader who taxed 
his matchless resources so long and so successfully in the 
unequal struggle. His former pupils have placed yon 
marble tablet in the wall to perpetuate his memory, with 
an epitaph written in the language we believe he would 
have preferred, as a slight token of the respect, rever- 
ence and affection with which they cherish his labors and 
prayers for their welfare. 

In 1854 he resigned the presidency, and after a year 
or two he removed to Arkansas, where he died March 
12th, 1882, at the advanced age of eighty-seven years. 

THE SCHOLARSHIP SYSTEM 

was the next scheme for sustaining the College, after the 
collapse of the Manual Labor System. During the latter 
period of Dr. Williamson's administration the Trustees 
devised the scheme of selling four hundred scholarships 
at one hundred dollars each, entitling the holder to twenty 
years' tuition in the College. This was for the purpose 
of raising $40,000 for the endowment of two professor- 



52 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

ships. According to this plan it was proposed to sell 
eight thousand years of tuition at five dollars a year in 
advance. In a business point of view it was a most dis- 
astrous proposition and has entailed untold embarrass- 
ment upon the College, especially as the entire proceeds 
of the sale were lost in the catastrophe of the late war, 
while the scholarships themselves, where not cancelled, 
are as fresh and lively to-day as they were in the first 
year of their existence. 

It is, however, probably true that this device saved 
the College from extinction in 1852, by supplying an 
additional thousand dollars or more of annual income. 
The relief, however, was very transient, for within two or 
three years the College was in imminent danger of being 
swamped by these very scholarships in cutting off nearly 
the entire income from tuition. They were transferable, 
and each one allowed two students at the same time to 
enjoy its benefits. They could be, and actually were, 
rented out to students not owning them, at rates less than 
the regular tuition. The consequence was that the income 
of the College from tuition, which for a few years previ- 
ous paid the meagre salaries of two professors, was 
reduced to a very small sum, while the income from the 
two hundred scholarships actually sold amounted to only 
about twelve hundred dollars. By this means the Col- 
lege was again upon the verge of financial ruin. 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 53 

But in these dark days the God of Providence and 
Grace, in whom the founders of the College trusted, was 
preparing a friend whose ample benefactions were suffi- 
cient, not merely to relieve the present distress, hut to 
raise the College to a higher plane than had been hoped 
for by its founders. This friend was 

MAXWELL CHAMBERS, ESQ., 

of Salisbury, N. C. By a will dated November, 1854, Mr. 
Chambers bequeathed to the College a residuary legacy 
amounting to about a quarter of a million of dollars. 
This was the sum that Mr. Chambers intended the Col- 
lege to receive, but owing to a clause in the charter lim- 
iting the amount of its property to $200,000, a consid- 
erable portion of the intended legacy, after tedious and 
expensive litigation, reverted to the testator's next of 
kin, viz. : Hon. David F. Caldwell, of Salisbury. The 
General Assembly of North Carolina, with the utmost 
liberality and promptitude, enlarged the power of the 
College to hold property to the extent of a half million 
dollars, and invested the College with all the claims 
which the State or its University might be supposed to 
have in the legacy that appeared to be forfeited, but it 
was too late. The Supreme Court, after protracted legal 
proceedings, decided, two to one, adversely to the College, 
and the Trustees were constrained to compromise by 
paying to Judge Caldwell about $45,000 of the legacy. 
Thus the actual sum received was reduced to $200,000- 



54 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

The residue, however, was a wondrous relief, lifting 
the College out of all its financial troubles and furnish- 
ing the means for erecting this spacious Chapel with its 
connected dormitories, library, laboratories and recitation- 
rooms, at a cost of nearly $85,000. The Trustees were 
also enabled to purchase valuable apparatus, cabinets and 
museums, as well as to give an ample support to a fuller 
corps of competent professors. 

Mr. Chambers was a native of this region of country, 
and after conducting a prosperous mercantile business in 
Charleston, S. C, he removed to Salisbury, N. C, where 
he lived many years, and where he died in February, 
1855. He was a man of great business sagacity, pru- 
dent, far-sighted and possessed of perfect self-control in 
difficult situations. He was kind to the unfortunate, 
hospitable and most liberal to the church of his prefer- 
ence; in principle a thorough Presbyterian, and died in 
the enjoyment of a comfortable hope of eternal life 
through Jesus Christ. His wife was a devout Christian, 
a member of the Salisbury Presbyterian Church, and for 
many years was a "Lady Bountiful" in her church and 
community. The portraits of this estimable pair adorn 
the walls of the library room of the College and also 
the walls of Manse parlor of the Salisbury Church. 
Being childless, and having a fortune of half a million, 
under the advice of the late Rev. Archibald Baker, then 
pastor of the Salisbury Church, and of that life-long 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 55 

friend of the College, the late D. A. Davis, Esq., of 
Salisbury, Mr. Chambers, after making ample provision 
for his kindred and friends with half of his estate, was 
led to give the other half to the cause of Christian edu- 
cation. 

In the meantime the presidency of Dr. Williamson 
having closed, the Trustees elected the Rev. Drury 
Lacy, D. D., of Raleigh, N. C, as his successor. 
Around him, as the third President of the College, were 
gathered a fuller corps of professors, consisting of Rev. 
E. F. Rockwell, Maj. Daniel H. Hill, C. D. Fishburn, 
John A. Leland, W. C. Kerr, Capt. C. B. Kingsbury 
and Alexander Mclver. Some of these were successive, 
not contemporaneous. Under these energetic men began 
a rigid system of training and drilling and grading that 
was not possible in the older, poorer days. These were 
bright, hopeful, progressive times, with handsome new 
buildings and ample endowments and a full and able 
corps of professors, and the College began to matricu- 
late over fifty students a year. 

Dr. Lacy was a native of Prince Edward county, 
Va., born August 5, 1802, and consequently was fifty- 
two years old when he began his career as College Presi- 
dent. He filled the office with honor to himself and 
profit to the institution. His great earnestness and sin- 
cerity of character, his uniform courtesy, his genial and 
winning manners, his deep-toned piety and elegant gen- 



56 SEMI-CEXTEXAEY ADDRESSES. 

eral scholarship fitted him to conduct the affairs of the 
College with acceptance. But he had been too long a 
pastor to feel comfortable in the more rigid depart- 
ment of college administration and discipline, and as 
his years increased he looked back with fond regret at 
his abandonment of the regular pastoral work. There- 
fore after five years he tendered his resignation, having 
graduated fifty-five students and matriculated two hun- 
dred and seventy-one. For a number of years he resided 
in Raleigh, teaching in a private school for girls, and 
afterwards in Peace Institute. He died in Moore 
county. N. C, August 1 ? 1884, in the enjoyment of a 
blessed hope of eternal life through Jesus Christ 

REV. JOHN LYCON KIRXPATRICK. P. P.. 

of Charleston, S. C., was elected in I860 the fourth 
President of Davidson College, and there were associated 
with him during his presidency Rev. E. F. Rockwell, 

Washington C. Kerr, Alex. Melver, Victor C. Bar- 
ringer, Wm. B. Lynch, John R. Blake, and Wm, X. 
Dickey as Tutor. Dr. Kirkpatrick's administration of 
six years embraced the exciting and gloomy years of the 
war between the States, during which time but two 
classes were graduated — that of 1861 and 1864. The 
number of matriculates was less than usual, and even 
after entering many of them would hasten from the quiet 
duties of college life to the stirring scenes of active cam- 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 57 

paigning and bloody encounter. Few of these ever 
returned to college, being under the necessity/at the close 
of the war, of turning their attention to the repair of 
shattered fortunes, or to the duty of earning a living for 
themselves and their bereaved families by labors that 
promised the quickest returns. Still the College exer- 
cises were never suspended until within a few weeks of 
the surrender at Appomattox. From four to six pro- 
fessors and a small number of students too young for 
military service were at their work until the near 
approach of the Federal troops dispersed them. 

In 1866, Dr. Kirkpatrick resigned the presidency in 
order to accept the Chair of Mental and Moral Philoso- 
phy in Washington College, afterwards Washington and 
Lee University, in Virginia. Here he labored with suc- 
cess until his death in 1886. 

Dr. Kirkpatrick was a native of Mecklenburg county, 
N. C, born January 13, 1813, and was a graduate of 
Hampden-Sidney College in Virginia. He was a man 
of learning, accurate scholarship, fine literary taste, and 
of great dignity of character. He possessed excellent 
administrative ability, and under propitious circum- 
stances the College would have flourished under his 
care. His leading characteristic, we should say, w T as 
wisdom, and in Boards of Trustees, in Presbyteries and 
Assemblies his voice was always heard with attention 
and profit whenever he chose to speak. The close of 



58 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

Dr. Kirkpatrick's presidency was in the dark days of 
1866, when- the fortunes of the College were at the low- 
est point. More than one hundred and thirty thousand 
dollars of its invested funds was irretrievably lost in 
the ruin of the different banks of the State. The 
remaining one hundred and thirty thousand dollars of 
railroad securities was in great jeopardy, and was ulti- 
mately sold for seventy thousand dollars — its full mar- 
ket value. And this constituted the entire endowment. 
But the old scholarships of 1851-^52 were legally as 
valid now as in more prosperous days, and in this emer- 
gency the impoverished holders were loth to forego their 
privileges, seeing that these afforded the only means of 
educating their sons. On the other hand, the Trustees 
were aware that the College could not be continued as a 
first-class institution under the burden of these scholar- 
ships. The alternatives presented were either to close 
the College, and thus fail to accommodate scholarship 
holders, or reduce it to a three-professor college, scarcely 
above a good high school, or to ask these scholarship 
holders to forego their legal rights. After mature 
deliberation the last alternative was adopted as the only 
method of continuing the College, in the hope that the 
income from tuition and from the invested fund would 
meet the expenses of an economical administration, pro- 
vided no scholarships were pressed for redemption. 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 59 

The Trustees then elected Rev. G. Wilson McPhail, 
D. D., LL. D., to the presidency and began a new career 
for the College, with such professors as E. F. Rockwell, 
J. R. Blake, Alex. Mclver, W. G. Richardson, W. J. 
Martin and Charles Phillips associated with him. Under 
this administration the College began to prosper beyond 
the expectation of its most sanguine friends, not only 
in the number of its students, but in its grade of schol- 
arship and its financial affairs. Admirable order and 
exemplary piety prevailed, and at one time all except 
two or three students were consistent members of the 
church. Dr. McPhail was at once kind, gentle, affec- 
tionate and firm, and, if need be, stern and inflexible. 
He was a thorough scholar, with peculiar attainments 
in Greek, Metaphysics and Psychology. He had been 
President of Lafayette College, at Easton, Pa., and had 
devoted much of his life to teaching. He was born at 
Norfolk, Va., December 26, 1818, and was graduated 
at Yale College in 1835. Naturally of a frail physical 
constitution, his health gave way under his severe meth- 
ods of study and the accumulated responsibilities of 
college administration; and when the Trustees and vis- 
itors gathered for the Commencement of 1871, it was 
to find the President sick unto death. The next day, 
June 28, 1871, he peacefully passed into the unseen 
world. All unnecessary exercises were omitted; the 
diplomas were quietly delivered by the senior professor, 



60 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

and at the hour when all would have been pleasurable 
excitement in the halls and the campus the Trustees 
sadly bore his body to the Chapel, and after solemn ser- 
vices there conveyed it thence to the College Cemetery. 
Under the shade of the trees he sleeps near by a little 
group of graves of students who have died here. His 
friends have placed yon modest marble tablet in the wall 
over the rostrum to remind us of his services to the 
College, and of his moral worth. 

Including the class of 1871, sixty students — an aver- 
age of twelve a year — were graduated under his admin- 
istration. The class of 1871 was the largest ever gradu- 
ated here. The matriculations numbered two hundred 
and one, including the largest number ever entered in 
one year — seventy-six in 1 878— '79. 

From 1871 to 1877 the College was conducted under 
the chairmanship of Professor JohirR. Blake, who had 
been Professor of Physics since 1861. With him were 
associated Professors J. Monroe Anderson, A. M., W. 
G. Richardson, A. M., W. J. Martin, A. M., Charles 
Phillips, D. D., J. F. Latimer, Ph. D., A. D. Hepburn, 
D. D., William M. Thornton, Samuel Barnett, R. L. 
Harrison, A. M. (acting), John R. Sampson, A. M., 
and Paul P. Winn, A. M. (adjunct). A number of 
these were not contemporaneous. Professor Blake's 
administration was characterized by excellent order, 
attention to study, harmony among the Faculty, and 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 61 

thorough scholarship of the graduates. He governed 
by the Faculty, whose executive officer he was, and the 
College never had a more satisfactory or successful 
period than these six years. The only reason for fall- 
ing back to the presidential method alleged was that the 
College might have a more imposing appearance, its 
head ranking with the Presidents of other colleges, and 
that by this means its reputation abroad might be en- 
hanced. 

One hundred and three students — an average of sev- 
enteen a year — were graduated under Professor Blake's 
chairmanship, and two hundred and five were matricu- 
lated — an average of thirty-four a year. Professor 
Blake served the College in his chair until 1885, a term 
of twenty-four years — the longest term of service 
in all its history. In 1885 he resigned his pro- 
fessorship and retired to private life in Greenwood, S. 
C. But he still serves the College as an honored Trus- 
tee. 

Rev. Andrew D. Hepburn, D. D., LL. D., Professor 
of Mental Science and English Literature, was elected 
President in 1877, and served until the Commencement 
in 1885. Associated as professors with him were J. P. 
Blake, A. M., W. J. Martin, A. M., J. F. Latimer, Ph. 
D., John R. Sampson, A. M., William W. Carson, C. 
E., M. E., William D. Vinson, M. A., William J. 
Bingham, A. M., W. S. Fleming, A. M. (acting), with 



62 SEMI-CENTEXARY ABDRESSES. 

Charles MeGuffey Hepburn, A. B., B. L., and J. P. 
Paisley. A. B., Tutors. 

Dr. Hepburn was a native of Williamsport, Pa., 

born November 14, 1830, and a graduate of the Uni- 
versity of Virginia in 1852. He was Professor of 
Metaphysics in the University of North Carolina from 
1859 to 1867: professor and afterwards President of 
Miami University, Ohio, till 1873, and professor in 
Davidson College from 1874 till his resignation in 1885. 

Dr. Hepburn is a superior scholar, well-rounded and 
finished in many directions, and possessing such tastes 
and habits of study as lead to constant acquisitions of 
knowledge. It is probable that no instructor in David- 
son College has ever been more successful in awakening 
the interest of students in the studies of his department 
than Dr. Hepburn. As a President, he was gentle, 
affable, charitable towards the failings, and appreciative 
of the virtues of the young. He posse.-sed the un- 
bounded esteem and confidence of his students, who 
were ever ready to defend iiim. honor him. and cling to 
him. During his term of eight years as President he 
graduated one hundred and twelve — an average of four- 
teen per annum — and matriculated three hundred and 
eighteen — an average of forty per annum, nearly. 

In 1884, Dr. Hepburn, being satisfied that his views 
concerning the management of the College were not in 
harmony with the views of the Trustees, as he stated, 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 63 

insisted upon the acceptance of his resignation, which 
was done early in 1885. Dr. Hepburn returned to 
Miami University, Ohio, and is now the honored Presi- 
dent of that institution. 

On the 4th of August, 1885, at a special meeting of 
the Trustees held in Charlotte, Rev. Luther McKinnon, 
pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Columbia, S. C, 
was elected to the presidency, and on the next day 
accepted the office. 

Dr. McKinnon was born in Richmond county, N. C, 
October 31, 1840. He was prepared for college in the 
schools of his native region, and entered Davidson Col- 
lege in 1857, where he was graduated in 1861, sharing 
the first honors of his class with two others. He studied 
theology in Columbia Seminary under that eminent 
divine Dr. Thorn well, and his learned coadjutors. He 
was licensed by Fayette ville Presbytery in 1864, and at 
once entered the Confederate army as Chaplain of the 
Thirty-sixth North Carolina Regiment. He was or- 
dained April, 1866, to the full work of the ministry by 
Fayetteville Presbytery. He was Principal of Floral 
Female College, in Robeson county, from January, 1865, 
to June, 1866, when he became pastor of the Goldsboro 
Presbyterian Church, which he faithfully served for four 
years. He became pastor of the Concord Presbyterian 
Church in December, 1871, and continued there for 
twelve years, until called to the Columbia Church, S. C, 



64 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

in October. 1883. In September, 1885, he came here as 
President of this College, which he has served now for 
two year.-. In 1886 both the University of North Caro- 
lina and the South Western Presbyterian University 
conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. 

Wherever Dr. McKinnon has labored success has 
crowned his efforts. Goldsboro, Concord and Columbia 
churches were built up and strengthened by his indefati- 
gable labors. Without any experience or prestige as an 
educator, he was chosen by the Trustees as a man who 
always succeeded wherever he was tried, and around 
whom the Presbyterians of the two Carolinas could rally. 
Aud the result justified the hopes of the College, for the 
number of students that had fallen to ninety-eight the 
previous year at once rose to one hundred and fifteen the 
next year, and this year to one hundred and nineteen. 
The intelligent exponent of the purposes of the Trus- 
tees, from long service in the Board, and thoroughly 
acquainted with the sympathies, partialities and preju- 
dices of the whole area of the College patronage, he 
administered discipline, maintained order, and. with his 
thoroughly harmonious Faculty, stimulated the students 
to ardor in their studies. The number of students 
matriculated the first year of Dr. McKinnon's adminis- 
tration was forty-nine, and the second year forty-five. 
If his health shall be speedily restored and he be able 
to do the external work proposed, it is confidently ex- 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 65 

pected that the number of students will be greatly 
increased and a general interest in Davidson College be 
awakened. 

Such is the outline sketch of the origin and history of 
Davidson College for the first fifty years of its life. In 
that period it has had eight Presidents, including the 
Chairman, of whom four have gone to their rest and four 
still remain, including the venerable first President. It 
has had thirty-nine regular and "acting" professors 
besides a number of tutors. The annual catalogue for 
1886- ? 87 shows a teaching force of one President and 
six professors. 

The total number of students who have been matricu- 
lated has been one thousand eight hundred and sixty- 
eight 

The total number of graduates, including the class of 
1887, is five hundred and seventy-one. Of these one 
thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight students who 
entered College one hundred and ninety-three have 
entered the Christian ministry — a number equal to more 
than one-third of the graduates. Many of its alumni 
have entered the legal profession, and some have become 
Judges in the Superior and Supreme Courts. Some of 
them have been honored legislators in several States 
and in the Congress of the United States. Some have 
been, or are, missionaries in foreign lands, and many of 
them have been useful and skillful physicians. A few 



66 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

of them have become editors and authors. And in the 
perilous days of civil war many of our College gradu- 
ates and students were found in the camp and on the 
battle field bravely hazarding their lives and shedding 
their blood for the land that gave them birth and the 
cause they loved so well. And in the quieter walks of 
life hundreds of men who once thronged these halls and 
walked among these venerable oaks have been leaders 
among their fellow-men, moulding public opinion and 
diffusing abroad the light which they received from 
learned lips in these ever-memorable class-rooms. 

Davidson College now has an endowment of one hun- 
dred and five thousand dollars, and this added to the 
value of its commodious buildings, libraries, cabinets, 
museums and grounds will aggregate about a quarter of 
a million dollars. Its annual income from invested 
funds and college dues amounts to about twelve thou- 
sand dollars. 

But well equipped as the College appears to be, and 
large as its income may seem, the demands of the age are 
such that new and increasing facilities for instruction 
demand increased expenditures. If we would educate 
our sons at home we must approach as near as practica- 
ble in conveniences for instruction the great institutions 
of learning that are inviting our sons to their halls. 

This is the era of centennials and semi-centennials and 
we might wisely imitate the example of other institu- 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 67 

tions and raise a centennial endowment fund of seventy- 
five or one hundred thousand dollars in the three Synods, 
and thus either add several new and needed professors 
to our corps of instruction, or materially lessen, if not 
abolish, the expenses for tuition, or increase the facilities 
for mental and physical culture. To do this we need 
only revive the spirit of liberality and self-sacrifice that 
animated the founders of the College. 

Fifty-two years ago those courageous young ministers, 
Robert Hall Morrison and Patrick J. Sparrow, obtained 
thirty thousand dollars of subscriptions for the found- 
ing of Davidson College in twenty weeks in the six thinly 
settled counties of Mecklenburg, Cabarrus, Rowan, 
Iredell, Burke and Lincoln, when Charlotte, and Salis- 
bury, and Concord, and States ville, and Lincolnton, 
and Morganton were insignificant little villages without 
railroad facilities, and before their merchants had accu- 
mulated the large fortunes that are now so common. 
The next year York, and Lancaster, and Chester and 
other districts in South Carolina contributed their pro- 
portion and the good work began in earnest. Such won- 
derful success betokened not merely the zeal and skill of 
the agents, but the faith, the readiness and the liberality 
of the contributors. This early success sounds the key- 
note of all future progress; nay, it is the condition of 
life itself. If the College would live it must grow. If 
it is to move on like a flowing stream, dispensing fresh- 



68 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

ness and vigor and life in its course, if it must enlarge 
and meet the ever-increasing demands upon its resources, 
there must be a continual inflowing of other and fresher 
streams of beneficence, and the constant descent of the 
showers of divine blessing in answer to the constantly 
ascending prayers of its friends to Him in whose hands 
are the hearts of all men. The stream that receives no 
affluents is likely to end in a bitter and tideless sea, 
where no life is found, where no life can be. The col- 
lege that is content with its present resources, its present 
facilities and its present grade of scholarship will soon 
be as dead and deserted as Lake Asphaltites. Stagna- 
tion is the dreary precursor of death, while activity, 
energy and progress are the only infallible tokens of 
indwelling life. I therefore confidently expect that we, 
brethren of the Alumni Association, and our children, 
and children's children, are to go on from year to year 
devising and executing plans for preserving the life and 
increasing the usefulness of our beloved Alma Mater. 

An attempt to forecast the destiny of Davidson Col- 
lege would doubtless be presumptuous, since God alone 
can see the end from the beginning. Still we cannot 
help hoping and anticipating, "and if we may judge 
from its past history and present condition, we can 
hardly help hoping that, as yet, we have seen only the 
handful corn in the earth upon the top of the mount- 
ains, and that in future and distant years others shall 
see the fruit thereof waving like Lebanon. 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 69 

There is, less than one hundred miles from this place, 
a spot on the summit of the Blue Ridge where can be 
seen the towering peaks of many mountains. Near at 
hand the rugged features of the Grandfather are out- 
lined against the western sky, and further on are the 
peaks of Hanging Rock and Beech Mountain. To the 
left and farther off are the sharp outlines of Hawk's 
Bill and Table Rock, while in the dim distance slumber 
the sombre sisterhood of the Black Mountain group. 
That spot, at Blowing Rock, is the towering apex of 
eastern America. And here are the head-springs of 
four noble rivers, the Yadkin, the Catawba, the Wa- 
tauga and the Great Kenawha, streams that diverge 
towards the four quarters of the earth, whose waters 
flow on unceasingly because they are nourished by 
perennial fountains in the very heart of the continent. 
But these fountains themselves are nourished by the 
clouds that daily wrap their mantle around the mount- 
ain tops, and distil their liquid treasures into the bosom 
of the earth five thousand feet above the level of the 
ocean's restless billows. And in like manner we trust 
that this fountain of pure learning opened here by our 
fathers, endowed by their liberality, sustained by their 
prayers, and nourished for fifty years by the blessing of 
our Heavenly Father, shall continue to send forth 
streams of wholesome knowledge, sound morality and 
earnest piety to every quarter of our sunny Southland — 



70 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

yes, to every quarter of this habitable earth. So it has 
done for one half of a century, and so by the favor of 
God it shall continue for a thousand generations. 

Invoking the richest blessing of a covenant-keeping 
God upon our beloved College, we, her loving sons, 
gather around her altars, and with united voices utter 
the heart-felt prayer that we see emblazoned on her walls 
to-day by loving hands: God bless the fiftieth 

YEAR. ESTO PERPETUA. 



AHHUAL ADDRESS 

ON 

Denominational Colleges, 



DELIVERED AT THE 



SEMI-CENTENARY CELEBRATION OF DAVIDSON COLLEGE, 

JUNE 13, 1887. 



BY REV. W. M. GRIER, D. D., OF ESKINE COLLEGE, 

DUE-WEST, S. C. 



"Every fiftieth year shall be a jubilee unto you " was 
the divinely prescribed law for ancient Israel. While 
it were an unwarranted use of Scripture to quote this 
regulation as authorizing serui-centennials, it is yet a sig- 
nificant recognition of the historic value of periodic 
review. It marks with the sanction of divine wisdom 
that growing custom which investigates principles in 
the light of experience — which proves them by the years 
of struggle and conflict through which they have passed. 
The history of our country is marked, in its beginning, 
by the peril of new things. The structure of the gov- 
ernment, in its thoroughly representative character, in its 
wide extension of suffrage and in its voluntary union of 
sovereign States, was a startling departure from long 



72 SEMI-CENTENABY ADDRESSES. 

established precedeDt. Wise statesmen regarded the ex- 
periment more than doubtful. Even after an existence 
of three-quarters of a century Macaulay, when asked 
his opinion of this American Republic, replied, "Let 
the twentieth century answer that question." One of 
the specially novel features pre-eminent in our govern- 
mental organization was, "A Free Church in a Free 
State." Here the line was broadly drawn. The long, 
dark record of bloody persecutions with which the world 
was so familiar at that time suggested to the soberest 
minds of the new republic this radical modification of 
the relation of these co-ordinate institutions. Entire, 
perpetual separation was the clear and definite conclusion 
reached. The words of the first amendment to the Con- 
stitution are as follows : " Congress shall make no law 
respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting 
the free exercise thereof." A well-informed writer 
observes, that " to-day every State, old and new, has a 
similar provision in its organic law." 

Antedating the formation of the Constitution, there 
were active movements towards the founding of institu- 
tions of learning These movements were specially 
marked in Virginia and the New England States. " Up 
to the American Revolution," says Dr. Magoun, in the 
New Englander, "eleven colleges had been founded: 
Harvard, William and Mary, Yale, Princeton, or New 
Jersey College, Pennsylvania University, Washington 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 73 

and Lee, Columbia, Brown, Dartmouth, Rutgers and 
Hampden-Sidney."* It is interesting to inquire into 
the origin, control and support of these early institutions, 
as indicating the convictions of our forefathers on this 
subject of higher education. In a valuable circular 
recently issued by the National Bureau of Education 
it is claimed that two of these eleven ante-Revolution- 
ary colleges were State institutions. The writer says of 
William and Mary : " It, like Harvard, was a State insti- 
tution." But the very circular in which this statement 
is made contains conclusive evidence, as it seems to us, 
drawn from ancient historical records, that the insti- 
tution owed its origin not so much to a State law as 
to the Crown of the mother country, as separate from 
the State. Indeed, so close and dependent was the rela- 
tion between the Church of England and William and 
Mary that President Gilman, of Johns Hopkins, dis- 
tinctly affirms, "William and Mary was emphatically a 
child of the Church of England." This statement finds 
strong corroboration in the terms of the charter, which 
declare the object of its foundation, in these words: 
"That the Church of Virginia may be furnished with a 
seminary of ministers of the Gospel, and that the youth 
may be piously educated and that the Christian faith 



*We acknowledge our indebtedness to the article of Dr. Magoun 
titled " The Source of American Education," for a number of facts in 
reference to these early colleges. 

4 



74 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

may be propagated among the Western Indians to the 
glory of Almighty God." There is, too, the further fact 
that a considerable part of the funds contributed for the 
establishment of the College was from private individ- 
uals. Do not these facts, viewed in united strength, 
show that William and Mary was not an exception among 
the earlier institutions of this country — that it was not 
the creation of the State by special enactment? In ref- 
erence to Harvard, the declaration of President Eliot 
ought to be accepted as decisive. He says: "Harvard 
was never a State institution in the sense in which the 
University of Michigan is a State institution, or in any 
proper sense. The Legislature has never had any direct 
control whatever over Harvard." In the claim set up, 
that the control of these Colonial colleges was predomi- 
nantly churchly, it should not be forgotten that there 
was at that time a thorough union of Church and State. 
Church membership was a condition of citizenship. 
"Suffrage and office-holding were restricted not only to 
church members, but to Congregational Church mem- 
bers." Hence a grant by the General Court of Massachu- 
setts was really the gift of the Church. It is evident, 
from facts like these, that the very first efforts in this 
'country in favor of colleges originated with the churches. 
Every one of the other nine ante-Revolutionary institu- 
tions, with the nominal though not real exception of 
Yale, was obviously the result of private benefactions. 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 75 

They were Church institutions : Princeton being under 
the control of Presbyterians; Rutgers of the Dutch 
Reformed ; Columbia very largely of the Episcopalians; 
Brown University of the Baptists, and Dartmouth of 
the Congregationalists, as also Yale. 

It might be well just here to emphasize the statement 
that denominational colleges and church colleges are not 
necessarily sectarian, as they are sometimes reproach- 
fully called. They were established and endowed not 
for the propagation of some distinctive denominational 
tenet, not in the interest of Calvinism or Arminianism, 
of immersion or affusion, of Episcopacy or Presbyte- 
rianism or Congregationalism. However deep, earnest 
and sacred may have been the convictions of their found- 
ers on questions like these, yet no system of church doc- 
trine or church polity found a place in the curriculum. 
The high, broad and generous purpose was and is to 
furnish the most thorough culture under distinctly 
Christian influences — where science and religion are 
indissolubly married, with that divine sanction : "The 
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Out- 
side of Roman Catholic schools there is no more teach- 
ing of sectarian doctrine in denominational colleges than 
in those under the control of the State. They recognize 
the fact that Christian education is one thing and eccle- 
siastical education is another thing;. We risk nothing: 
in the statement that a pupil might pass through the entire 



76 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

course at a denominational college without identifying the 
distinctive religious beliefs of the instructors from their 
work in the class-room. 

If it be asked, "Why, then, is the control lodged in 
the hands of a single denomination, rather than a joint 
management of a number of denominations?" we 
answer, in the words of Dr. Porter, of Yale: "In the 
present divided condition of Christendom, there seems 
no solution of the problem, except the one which has been 
accepted in this country, viz. : that the college should 
be in the hands of some single religious denomina- 
tion, in order to secure unity and effect to its religious 
character and influence, and that it should be preserved 
from sectarian bias and illiberality, by its responsibility 
to the community which it would influence and by the 
enlightened and catholic supremacy of the culture to 
which it is devoted." 

The entire history of denominational colleges supports 
this view. They are not a system of sect-propagandism. 

The eleven Colonial institutions to which we have 
referred may be regarded, in their main features, as the 
germ and type of all the denominational institutions in 
this country. They agree in one specific object named 
in all their charters, viz. : to furnish the Church with a 
learned and pious ministry. Their control and manage- 
ment are much the same — with Boards of Trustees, who 
are appointed by some Church courts. Their means of 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 77 

support are also the same — by endowments secured 
through voluntary contributions. In these simple, fun- 
damental characteristics we have the distinct outlines of 
every denominational college in the land. 

For a considerable period after the close of the Revo- 
lutionary war the educational interests of the country 
shared in the general exhaustion and prostration of that 
great struggle. But that high appreciation of liberal 
culture which has ever distinguished the Scotch-Irish 
very soon asserted itself in the organization of such 
institutions as Jefferson, Dickinson and Union of Sche- 
nectady. A little later the movement broadened and 
deepened, and about the time of the organization of 
Davidson most of the denominations in the older States 
were planning for similar institutions. The comprehen- 
sive zeal of the churches in this matter is seen in the fact 
that of the 370 colleges and universities in this country 
nearly 80 of them are under distinctively religious con- 
trol. And while the endowments of the most of them 
are meagre enough they represent such devotion to the 
interests of education, such self-sacrifice, such uncon 
quaerble resolution, such conspicuous labor and toil as are 
found only among a people deeply religious and of high 
intelligence. Who that has any acquaintance with the 
history of these colleges and their struggles, who that has 
looked into the faces of their hard-worked and poorly- 
paid teachers but renders unstinted homage and praise? 



78 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

I know it is said that there is a needless and damag- 
ing multiplication of these colleges — needless because 
they are multiplied beyond the wants of the country, 
and damaging because, in the sharp competition for stu- 
dents, the standard of scholarship is lowered and the 
regular degrees are cheap. But while this is admitted 
and lamented, and while the subject demands some con- 
certed action on the part of educators, yet this is a par- 
donable zeal, however unwise, and it shall not abate one 
jot our high appreciation of the large and self-denying 
liberality of those who established these institutions. 
With the strongest convictions and under the highest im- 
pulses they gave time and labor and money to the noblest 
purposes. Grant that there has been a degree of misdi- 
rected effort and something of wasted resources, yet, per- 
haps, not more in this department than in any other line 
of human endeavor involving such large interests and 
such extended co-operation. 

We have thus endeavored to make plain, as a promi- 
nent historical feature of our denominational colleges, 
that they are all the outgrowth of the conviction that 
higher education is a function of the Church, that it is 
not only its legitimate prerogative, but its imperative 
obligation. And are there not indications that this con- 
viction, so far from weakening, is growing stronger? 
As the population of this country becomes every year 
more heterogeneous, as the peculiar and distinctive fea- 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 79 

ture of our Constitution, the complete separation of 
Church and State, is held to with such tenacity, is there 
not just occasion for the apprehension that apart from 
these religious institutions our educational system will 
become secularized? Dr. Dabney said, about ten years 
ago: "If the State is the educator, in America, at least, 
education must be secularized totally, because in theory 
our State is the institute for realizing secular justice. It 
has absolutely severed itself from all religions equally 
* * * and has forbidden the imposition of any bur- 
den for a religious pretext. All State school officials 
derive their authority from State laws, hence all their 
functions are as truly State actions as those of the sheriff 
in hanging or the judge in sentencing a murderer." 
That this is not the view of a visionary or an alarmist is 
seen in an article in a recent issue of the Forum from a 
professor in the leading university of the South, who 
earnestly advocates this proposition : " In all State 
schools, high and low, created and supported in whole or 
in part by general taxation, all religious exercises, 
whether of instruction or devotion, maintained as a part 
of the established school system, ought to be prohibited 
by law." In that proposition we have the early and 
complete confirmation of the statement of Dr. Dabney. 
Our forefathers, with prophetic sagacity, anticipated this 
issue, an issue that is pressing itself for a settlement on 
the question of " the Bible in the public schools." They 



80 SEMI-CENTENAJRY ADDRESSES. 

provided against it in the organization of institutions 
like that whose jubilee we celebrate this day. 

What has been the work of such colleges? What 
have they done for the country? In what way and to 
what extent have they made us what we are as a peo- 
ple — strong and prosperous at home and respected abroad 
as no other nation on the globe? These are pertinent 
questions. We may answer, 1st, They have been a won- 
derful stimulus to education. They have turned the 
attention of the people, by constant and reiterated appeal, 
to this great subject. The early settler, struggling with 
all the hardships and pinching adversities of felling 
forests, fighting savages and building a home, was not 
allowed to forget that the great forces which rule the 
world are the intellectual and the moral. He was taught 
that the Church and the school-house are the only safe 
guardians of our liberties, and that the high responsi- 
bilities of American citizenship are inseparably associ- 
ated with virtue and intelligence. The college agent, 
generally a minister of the Gospel, in private converse 
around the fireside and in public address pressed the 
great practical truth that the best inheritance for our 
children is not in broad acres and large wealth, but in a 
trained and disciplined intellect, quickened and roused 
to effort by integrity of heart and high purposes. As 
the hardy pioneer thought on these things the fire would 
burn within him, and the resolution is taken that one of 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 81 

the boys must go to college. Such influences were felt 
in the most obscure localities, and religion and learning 
have drawn some of their most distinguished ornaments 
from the humble homes of a hardy peasantry. Not 
only is it true that these institutions have been the most 
active and successful promoters of liberal culture, but 
it is also true that (2) they have furnished such facilities 
for securing an education as made it the privilege of the 
poor. Thousands have received the advantage of a lib- 
eral training in these denominational institutions who, 
without them, must have remained in comparative igno- 
rance. Located, generally, in communities where the 
cost of living is low, with but few temptations to dissi- 
pation and fashionable extravagances, with all necessary 
expenses reduced to a minimum, these institutions have 
been public benefactors. It is the union of these two 
influences, the one furnishing the stimulus and the other 
the opportunity, that has given us so large a proportion 
of students in our thickly settled districts. For instance, 
Germany is commonly reckoned the high example and 
model of educational progress, and yet while Germany 
has one student for each 2,134 of population, in the 
New England States there is one student for each 1,028 
of population, or about twice as many. Even in these 
Southern States, awfully scourged as they have been, 
poor as they are to-day and sparsely populated as they 
are, there is approximately about one student for each 



82 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

4,500 of population. Can there be a question that this 
proportion is clue mainly to the presence and influence 
of the denominational colleges? Standing as the faith- 
ful handmaids of religion, they have been the preponder- 
ating force in our educational life. By the co-operation 
of the religious press, by the , widely diffused efforts of 
active canvassers, with every minister as a recruiting offi- 
cer, they have reached with their benedictions the 
dwellers by the brooks and on the mountain side, and 
have infused high and noble ambitions into their fresh, 
young life. And in every nook and corner of these 
United States, in every walk and profession of life, there 
are numerous and honorable witnesses to their stimulat- 
ing and beneficent influences. 

(3). But these colleges have impressed themselves on 
the religious as well as the intellectual life of this coun- 
try. They have infused a healthy conservatism into the 
thought and investigation of the age. There has been 
a manifest and alarming tendency in the last quarter of 
a century toward scepticism in science and liberalism in 
theology. A thoughtful observer summarizes the situa- 
tion thus: " Science — physical science — has become as 
speculative and as prolific of metaphysical theories as 
the most insane metaphysician could wish. It is some- 
what surprising," continues he, "that the leaders of 
thought in the higher departments seem ready to submit 
to these domineering pretensions, so that theology proper, 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 83 

in many cases, has caught the infection of a material- 
istic philosophy and speaks c half in the speech of Ash- 
dod/ A rationalistic scepticism steals within the very 
inclosures of the conscience and makes use of the pulpit 
for the purpose of seducing men into disbelief of every 
thing that is peculiar to the Gospel system."* It has 
been persistently asserted that scientific theories stand in 
no relation whatever to religious beliefs — that these lie in 
separate and independent spheres and that, therefore, 
there should be the largest toleration of scientific opin- 
ion. Cerebralism, which is outright materialism, is 
claimed as the latest fruit of biology. All supernatu- 
ralism is accounted an unscientific if not an antiquated 
conceit. It must be rigidly excluded in dealing with 
the phenomena of nature. Thus it has come to pass 
that in the hot zeal to be non-religious there is a real 
danger in some of our higher institutions of learning of 
becoming anti-religious and anti-Christian. The idea 
has received some fav^>r even in religious quarters, that 
a liberal culture is somewhat narrowed and hampered 
by decided religious influences, and hence the extreme 
position, that all the truths of Christianity must be 
regarded by a devotee of learning as open questions. But 
is it not true that this very solicitude to be non-committal 
is to dishonor the most sacred and indisputable verities? 



*'Dr. Stuart Robinson. 



84 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

Must our youth be taught that the educated reason holds 
in abeyance the deepest questions of truth that it can 
pronounce with confidence on the the age of the world, 
on matters social, political and scientific, but that it must 
adjourn to some indefinite future the high themes of the 
spiritual kingdom? Is not the attitude of professed 
indifference in such a supreme and vital interest the atti- 
tude of hostility? Must every other branch of knowl- 
edge be welcomed in our colleges, while a kuowledge of 
Him who declares that He is the Truth is " ostracized " ? 
Now, is it too much to claim for the denominational 
colleges of this country that they stand steadfastly in 
the breach against the tendency to a secularized educa- 
tion ? They are a conspicuous and abiding protest against 
the severance of science and religion. If Waterloo was 
won at Eton, so the victory over a spirit of reckless 
speculation is to be won in our Christian colleges. With- 
out apology or qualification, they declare with emphasis 
that "to do its best work a college^must be instinct with 
the light and life of Christianity." "Other things 
being equal, such institutions will exert the best, the 
highest and the most permanent influence on those whom 
it instructs, and through them on society and the world." 
And is it not true that they are needed now more than 
ever? The times in which we live are times of deep 
agitation — not so much on questions political as on ques- 
tions social and religious. He is blind indeed who does 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 85 

not see something of those tendencies to which we have 
alluded. There is an insolent rejection of Christian 
dogma on the ground that it bars the progress of science 
and human enlightenment. 

Every Christian patriot feels that such influences are 
to be uncompromisingly resisted. This resistance can 
only be successful in the united strength of an earnest 
faith and high scholarship. It is, as we believe, the 
glorious prerogative and the inspiring destiny of the 
Christian colleges of this land to maintain the sentiment 
of that great scientist who declared that "in discovering 
the law of creation he was but thinking the thoughts of 
God after him." 

We cherish the pride of the American citizen. " Our 
country," many-sided as are the problems which it sug- 
gests, is in the van of modern progress. On its stand- 
ard "are blazoned the hopes of the world and in its 
bosom beats the heart of humanity." These are no 
exaggerations of rhetoric. To finish the work given her 
to do, so wide and far-reaching in its consequences, she 
must hold fast a morality whose principles are rooted 
and grounded in the infallible revelations of divine truth. 
She must preserve with a scrupulous fidelity all those 
Christian features of this government which have been 
incorporated into its life by our God-fearing forefathers. 
No mean or insignificant auxiliaries in this stupendous 
task are those institutions of learning, founded in faith 



s 6 SEMI-CEXTENAEY ADDEESSES. 

and prayer, and upon whose portals are graven the 
Is, Pro Chrisi .. They are a salutary 

and enduring reminder of the tact that the highest inspi- 
lar as well as the Barest hope of the 
patriot is found, nut in the Academy or the Porch, not 
in the Athenian Acropolis or the Roman Forum, 
in t:. — ntsi k the gates f Jei asalem. 

4 . In estimating the work ol the denominational 
colleges prominence must he u'iveu to their contributions 
to an educated, learned ministry. The able President 
: the university at B . si says that the ministry is 
ssion in this country whi s finite 

gradt F g - as j its s 

functions. T - »nal institutions furnish 

leclarati< 
estimate placed up g and rship, as quali- 

■ their founders. An influ- 
ential, a prevailing peas a was, witl 
an i that the Chui ght be t\u\ with 
able ministers f the New Testament. With a frank 
confession of all - their work in this 
it is yet true, - Dv. V f Yale, 
that the mini-: 

ary class. Th - . _ . their training mainly 

at the denominational coll . ! Church has n 

pt to a v^ry limi rent, upon secular 

institute - tl y of its ministry. Herexj 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 87 

ence has taught her that she cannot do it. In proof of 
this let me give you some unpublished statistics which 
have been kindly furnished me by Dr. Bunting, of 
Clarksville, Tennessee: "The University of Alabama 
up to 1879 graduated 659, and so far as known only 30 
were clergymen. The University of Georgia, at Athens, 
in 80 years has sent out 2,003 graduates; only 137 
entered the ministry. Of all the graduates of the Uni- 
versity of Michigan in 36 years, from 1844 to 1879, 
only 157 were ministers. Cornell's graduates number 
814. She can put her finger positively on 19 who have 
become ministers." 

Now these are the facts on one side. What are the 
facts with reference to the denominational colleges? 
Sewanee, the Episcopal University of the South, has 
sent 11 of her 80 graduates into the ministry, while 53 
of her students are now candidates. Emory College, 
Georgia, of her 791 graduates has sent 156 into the 
ministry of the Methodist Church, also a large number 
who did not graduate. Mercer University (the Baptist 
institution of Georgia) has sent out 591 graduates, and 
101 of them are ministers. Of the 54 graduates which 
Roanoke, Virginia, has sent out in the past five years, 
24 have studied Theology. Princeton, New Jersey, has 
graduated 5,921, and 1,147 entered the ministry. The 
Alumni of Washington and Jefferson, Pennsylvania, 
number 3,274, and 1,458 have entered the ministry. 



88 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

Your own Davidson has graduated 537, and 162 have 
entered the ministry. These figures prove the correct- 
ness of a recent statement made by Dr. Dabney, that 
"each Church must look chiefly for the rearing of can- 
didates to its own colleges. Whether we can explain it 
or not," he adds, "the stubborn facts prove this." Any 
just appreciation, therefore, of the service which these 
institutions have rendered the cause of religion and 
learning must signalize the vast contributions of the 
clergy to the departments of letters, criticism, scientific 
research and sound theology. All these departments 
have felt their quickening influence. On an occasion 
like this, therefore, we remember with profound venera- 
tion the wisdom of the founders of these institutions, 
and the heroic self-denial which has sustained them amid 
the severest trials. They were men of a large public 
spirit, of an enthusiasm for liberal culture and of a sub- 
lime faith. We can well believe that their prayers have 
gone up for a memorial before the great Head of the 
Church, and that He will establish the work of their 
hands. There are gratifying indications of the increasing 
usefulness of these denominational colleges. More and 
more as our national perils increase do the hearts of the 
people turn to these nurseries of learning and piety. 
Insisting as they do upon a Christian scholarship, may 
their Christianity be as pure and elevated as when it 
came from the Divine Teacher, and may their culture 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 89 

in its extent and thoroughness fairly represent that spirit 
of earnestness, fidelity and devotion to the truth which 
this Christianity enjoins. Such a spirit as will make 
war upon low standards and narrow aims. 

It is no affectation to say that such has been the hon- 
orable reputation which this institution has borne. In 
the fifty years of its past history it has laid broad and 
deep the foundations of its future prosperity, and to-day, 
in the full vigor of maturity, it anticipates its centen- 
nial, when with accumulated vitality, the light of the 
moon shall be as the light of the sun aud the light of 
the sun shall be as the light of seven days. 



THE ADHIHISTRJLTIOH 

OF THE 

Rev. R. H. Morrison, D. D., 

AS THE 

FIRST PRESIDENT OF DAVIDSON COLLEGE, 

EEAD AT THE SEMI-CENTENARY OF THE COLLEGE, 

JUNE 15, 1887. 



BY HON. J. G. RAMSAY, M. D., CLASS OF 1841 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

It is proper to remark at the outset that this sketch 
of the administration of the Rev. Robert Hall Morri- 
son, D. D., as the first President of Davidson College, 
must necessarily be somewhat imperfect. Fifty years 
have passed away since the writer, then quite a boy, 
entered the College as a student, during its first session, 
on the 20th of March, 1837. He kept no diary or 
other record of passing events, and must write from his 
own recollection and that of others similarly situated, 
and from the limited access he has had to the records of 



92 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

Concord Presbytery and the Board of Trustees of the 
College. He has had no access whatever to the records 
of the Faculty, if any of that administration are now 
extant. 

In narrative, also, the sketch must be somewhat diffu- 
sive. A considerable portion of Dr. Morrison's life has 
been so thoroughly identified with the early history of 
the institution that this must be reviewed, to some extent 
at least, in order to an intelligent and just appreciation 
of his administration. 

The first official movement towards founding the Col- 
lege was made by Concord Presbytery, at Prospect 
Church, on the 12th of March, 1835. And it is worthy 
of note that within two years from that date the Col- 
lege was opened for students. To Dr. Morrison is 
accredited — and no doubt correctly — the introduction of 
the paper which " unanimously resolved to undertake — 
in humble reliance on the blessing of God — the estab- 
lishment of a Manual Labor School, and to appoint a 
committee to report to the next Presbytery the best 
means for its accomplishment, and the most favorable 
place for its location." This committee was chosen by 
ballot and Dr. Morrison selected chairman. It is a 
matter of record that he was chairman of nearly every 
important committee and foremost in every good word 
and work in founding the College. Thus, during the 
year 1835, he was appointed on a committee "to prepare 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 93 

a general outline of the principles of the contemplated 
school," with the Rev. P. J. Sparrow, an agent "to raise 
funds for the College," with the Rev. S. Williamson to 
draft "laws and a constitution for the school," which 
was at Bethel Church, August 25th, 1835, officially 
denominated Davidson College for the first time. At 
Charlotte, October 12th of the same year, he and Dr. 
Williamson were appointed " to petition the next Gen- 
eral Assembly of the State for a charter"; and Trustees 
being there and then elected for the first time, he was 
chosen in the class receiving the highest vote. Presby- 
tery having decided to meet on the 10th of April, 1836, 
at the site of Davidson College, to lay the corner-stone 
of the Chapel, Dr. Morrison was chosen by that body 
to deliver an address, which he did standing in the open 
air upon the foundation of the building, in the presence 
of Presbytery and a large audience of people. His 
subject was "the importance of learning generally, and 
especially of a learned ministry to the happiness of a 
community, and the security of a free and religious gov- 
ernment." 

On the 9th of November, 1836, Dr. Morrison was 
elected President of Davidson College, at Centre Church, 
by the combined votes of the Presbyteries of Concord, 
Bethel and Morgan ton — these Presbyteries being asso- 
ciated for the establishment and management of the in- 
stitution. He accepted the position, at Charlotte, on the 



94 SEMI-OENTENAjaY ADDRESSES. 

21st of the next month, where Presbyteiy fixed his 

salary at $1,200 a year, with the use of a house and 
Iot 3 and decided to open the College for students on the 
first of March, 1-37. 

Just here it seems worthy of remark that the times 
do n<;»r seem to have been auspicious for this great work, 
in which the men of that day were so determined and 
successful. Orange Presbytery was engaged fi >m 1833 
to 1836 in founding Caldwell Institute. Fayettevilk 
Presbytery, about the same time, founded Donaldson 
Academy, on the manual labor plan. These and other 
schools, with the Baptist College at Wake F-jre.-t and 
the University at Chapel Hill, were well calculated to 
be rivals instead of feeders to Davidson. A monetary 
crisis, perhaps the most disastrous that has ever occurred 
in the history of the government, prostrated the busi- 
ness of the country and reduced the prices of produce 
and property to a most ruinous extent in 1837. The 
Presbyterian Church, also, had its own troubles. These 
culminated, in May of the same year, in the division <A' 
the Church into New and Old Schc I brandies. There 
were no railroad facilities for travel and the transporta- 
tion of produce in North Carolina at that time — no 
graph line-, no teleph nes, no deaf and dumb and 
blind institutions, and no insane asylums here then. 
Our postal facilities were limited, indeed — a letter to 
Philadelphia - ting about twelve times the postage that 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 95 

one does now, and consuming in transit about the same 
relative proportion as to time. 

Such were the times, the condition of the country and 
of the Church, when Dr. Morrison removed to the Col- 
lege with his family and took possession of the brick 
building, now occupied by Professor Martin, at the 
north end of the row of buildings now nearest the new 
Chapel. Professor P. J. Sparrow occupied the house — 
now untenanted, I believe — at the south end of the same 
row, near the Philanthropic Hall. The Steward's Hall 
and a dormitory, both still standing, were the only in- 
tervening buildings. Two dormitories near the public 
road west of the old Chapel, and a store-house beyond 
the road, constituted, with a few necessary out-build- 
ings, the entire building accommodations at that time. 
The foundation of the old Chapel had been laid, as we 
have seen, nearly a year before, but the superstructure 
was not finished until the fall of 1838. The Steward, 
Mr. Abel Graham, with his family, was installed in the 
upper rooms of the Steward's Hall. Mr. M. D. Johns- 
ton, the Tutor, also had board and lodging in the same 
building. He did not arrive, however, until near the 
middle of the first session, being delayed by a painful 
wound received when on his way to the College by a 
fall from his horse. 

The average number of students in attendance during 
the first session was a fraction over sixty-one. The late 



96 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

• 

T. C. Crawford, of Georgia, and the late R. M. Allison, 
Esq., of Statesville, both from Iredell county, and 
natives of this State, are said to have been the first stu- 
dents to arrive on the College grounds. The three 
dormitories, containing four rooms each, and twelve in 
all, were furnished for four students to a room, thus 
forty-eight only of the sixty odd students were properly 
domiciled, leaving quite a number to be crowded into 
the rooms as supernumeraries. By the beginning of 
the fall session, however, two additional dormitories had 
been provided, thus furnishing rooms for about eighty 
students. These were all filled, at one time, during Dr. 
Morrison's administration, and students were allowed to 
erect small buildings, at their own expense, for lodging 
and study and sell them to other students for the same 
purposes. 

The Steward's Hall was, par excellence, the College 
Hall. Thither all the students repaired three times a 
day for their meals and morning and evening prayers. 
There Dr. Morrison and Professor Sparrow preached 
every Sabbath, and there the sacraments of the Church 
were administered. There the Trustees met for the 
transaction of business, and there, too, all visitors, who 
were not the guests of the Faculty, were accommodated. 

The Eumenean and Philanthropic Societies were 
organized, named, and at first conducted, in the dormito- 
ries. There the contestants, who entertained large audi- 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 97 

ences on the last night of the winter session, in decla- 
mation, composition, original speaking, and debate, were 
at first chosen and trained. 

For manual labor the students were divided into three 
classes. Each of these was required to work three hours 
a day, an hour and a half or two hours in the mornings, 
and the balance of the time in the evenings — the hours 
for work being so arranged as not to conflict with those 
for recitation. Each student received a fixed credit on 
his board bill for his labor. Subsequently the hours 
for work were reduced to two, then to one, when labor 
was left voluntary. Finally, during the year 1841, the 
system was abandoned altogether. 

Thus without a Chapel, and Society Halls ; without a 
College library, or, indeed, a public library of any kind ; 
without a philosophic apparatus and chemical outfit, and 
without precedents of favorable augury to guide and 
cheer, in the Manual Labor experiment, Dr. Morrison 
was called upon to take the presidency of an institution, 
where he was to preach, teach, govern and supervise all 
secular and religious interests, and to be held responsible, 
to a great extent, for any failure. But it is pleasing to 
state that these onerous duties were very much lightened, 
during the first session, by the general good behavior of 
the students, a large number of whom were pious young 
men, looking forward to the Gospel ministry. These 
exercised a restraining influence on those not so well 
5 



98 SEMI-CEXTEXARY ADDEESSES. 

disposed. Hence but one student is remembered to have 
been expelled during that session. 

Before the completion of the lower rooms in the old 
Chapel recitations were made in the private studies of 
the Faculty. The text-books used were Day's Alge- 
bra. Olmstead's Xatural Philosophy and Astronomy, 
Turner's Chemistry. Gibson's Surveying, Hedge's Logic, 
Locke on the Human Understanding, Blair's Rhetoric, 
Paley's Evidences of Christianity, Adam's Latin Gram- 
mar. Caesar's Commentaries, Sallust, Virgil. Cicero, 
Horace and Livy : Valphy's Greek Grammar. Greek 
Testament, Graeca Minora and Majora. 

Dr. Morrison was a pleasant, impressive and success- 
ful teacher. He questioned to learn what the student 
knew and lectured to impart his own knowledge. He 
filled any chair necessity required, but generally taught 
Mathematics and the Sciences. 

As a preacher, he is remembered as a genuine pulpit 
orator. His style was easy, animated, earnest and 
pathetic — not artificial, but natural. His sermons were 
methodically and logically arranged, but he usually 
glided into his argument without special announcement. 
The College was peculiarly fortunate in having two such 
perfect types of oratory as were set forth by Dr. Mor- 
rison and Professor Sparrow. The former was Demos- 
thenean in manner, but without the impetuosity of the 
great Athenian ; the latter Ciceronean. While both were 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 99 

specially admired, I think, Dr. Morrison touched the 
heart and conscience more decidedly than Professor 
Sparrow. 

No class graduated in 1837, and none until 1840. 
But public examinations were held and annual orations 
pronounced and speeches made by representatives chosen 
by the literary societies, at the close of each summer ses- 
sion. The first examination of this kind was held under 
an arbor in a grove near the public road, just north and 
a little outside of the College buildings, on the first of 
July, 1837. The annual address was delivered by John 
Beard, Jr., of Salisbury, North Carolina. A quotation 
from his exordium will show his admiration of the 
institution ; the munificence of its patrons, and why he 
spoke more directly to the young. He said : 

"The number of pupils in this youthful seminary, 
the liberality of those whose private munificence has 
caused it to spring into life, like the fabled goddess of 
antiquity, in full vigor; the numerous and respectful 
assembly, composed, in part, of anxious parents con- 
vened to witness the first public test of their laudable 
experiment, all these admonish me that the elder por- 
tion of my auditory needs no argument to convince them 
of the value of intellectual improvement. My efforts 
will, therefore, be limited to those favored youth whose 
lot it is to possess in these shades, dedicated to letters, 
advantages for which they incur a solemn responsi- 
bility." 



100 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

The students were not grouped into college classes 
until September of this year; then those more advanced 
were formed into Sophomore and Freshman Classes, and 
as these advanced yearly, their places were filled by pre- 
paratory students. So much for the first year of Dr. 
Morrison's administration. 

During the first session of 1838 the morale of the 
students was not so good as it had been, and the Faculty 
felt compelled to make several suspensions. It was 
very obvious that this was a great trial to the good 
President, for the reputation of the students was very 
dear to him. His solicitude and anxiety, at that time, 
are well remembered. He was charitable, but just; 
tender, but firm. He pronounced the sentence of indefi- 
nite suspension, before all the students, with pathos, but 
composure. We all loved him; and those banished 
received their sentence without apparent vindictiveness 
or resentment. 

In his deportment and government, Dr. Morrison 
seems to have embodied and practiced the maxims laid 
down by Dr. Witherspoon, when President of Princeton 
College. But as these were not published until after 
Dr. Morrison resigned his presidency, his methods were 
his own. Dr. "Witherspoon's maxims are summarized 
as follows, viz. : 

1. " Govern, govern always, but beware of governing 
too much. 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 101 

2. " Convince your students that you desire to impose 
no restraints but such as their real advantage, and the 
order and welfare of the college, render indispensable. 

3. "Put a wide difference between youthful follies and 
foibles, and those acts which manifest a malignant spirit 
or intentional insubordination. 

4. "Be exceedingly careful not to commit your own 
authority, or that of the college, in any case that cannot 
be carried through with equity. 

5. " In every instance in which there has been a mani- 
fest intention to offend or to resist your authority, or 
that of the college, make no compromise with it what- 
ever; put it down absolutely and entirely." 

At the examination, August 2d, 1838, Dr. James H. 
Thornwell delivered the annual oration, and Dr. Mor- 
rison and Professor Sparrow were formally inducted into 
their respective offices, and each delivered an inaugural 
address. The venerable John Robinson, D. D., Presi- 
dent of the Board of Trustees, propounded the questions 
and imposed the obligations. Towards the close of his 
address, which was a model of its kind, Dr. Morrison 
said : 

"Those who prize sound instruction, virtuous habits 
and Christian principles as the most essential constitu- 
ents in forming excellency of character will no doubt 
rejoice in the increasing evidences of our prosperity and 
pray for our continued success. 



102 8EMI-CENTENAKY ADDRESSES. 

" If we look back, the history of Davidson College 
is soon told. Three years and about rive months only 
have passed since the first resolution in reference to it 
was drawn. * * * From that hour to this we have 
seen nothing to impair, but much to strengthen, our 
confidence in God and our reliance on this community. 
Now we see in this grove adorned with buildings a 
goodly temple to God standing in the midst, a just em- 
blem that the Gospel to be preached in it is the main- 
spring of the whole system. We see around us the 
sons of many anxious parent-, from a large section of 
country, whose bosoms swell with aspirations to rise 
high and live long, for their own and their country's 
honor. Above all, we are cheered with the token- of 
I rod's presence and the prayer- of His people. 

"What the future history of this College shall be, 
mast depend very much upon its friends. * * * * 
Let the friends of this institution do their duty, and 
trust in God, and we have much to hope for. and but 
little to fear in reference to its prosperity." 

In this year, by appointment of the Board of Trus- 
tees, Dr. Morrison read, before that body, a report on the 
culture of silk, and so highly pleased was the Board 
that it ordered the publication of five hundred copies 
for distribution. In this report, after premising that 
"every enlightened and benevolent friend of civilized 
society should feel a deep interest in its agricultural pro— 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 103 

perity," among many other truths worthy of remem- 
brance, Dr. Morrison asserts this one, which should be 
deeply engraven on every mind, that "it will be a dis- 
astrous day to the virtue and freedom of this land if 
public sentiment should ever depreciate the honest and 
ennobling labors of those who sow and reap for the pub- 
lic good." 

During this year, his Alma Mater, the University of 
North Carolina, conferred upon him the justly merited 
title of Doctor of Divinity. About this time, also, steps 
were taken by the Board, for the first time, to raise 
funds to purchase a philosophical apparatus and chemical 
outfit, and also a library for the College. 

The President's health beginning to fail under his 
multiplied and onerous duties, the Board resolved that 
he should "have the privilege of leaving the institution 
for a convenient season, to travel for the benefit of his 
health." Consequently he was, in October, again deputed 
to visit Raleigh during the next session of the General 
Assembly, and procure a charter for the College. The 
charter was granted, and ratified on the 28th day of 
December, A. D. 1838. It was laid before the Board of 
Trustees and accepted. 

But the President's health did not improve, and we 
infer that he proposed to retire permanently, for on the 
31st of January, 1839, the Board resolved that "Dr. 
Morrison be allowed to retire for a time," but "be car - 



104 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

estly requested to retain the office until he has tried all 
the means in his power for the restoration of his health." 
And as showing still further the high estimation of his 
services, it was recommended to the joint Presbyteries 
to meet and appoint a Vice-President. 

The College exercises, including the Manual Labor 
department, during the year 1839, were carried on 
mainly by Professor Sparrow and Mr. Johnston and the 
Steward, Mr Robinson. The President gave all the 
attention to the duties of his office his health would 
permit. He was, necessarily, much absent. With part 
of his family, he traveled North, with the hope that 
respite from labor, change of air and medical aid might 
be beneficial. But the beginning of the year 1840 find- 
ing him still an invalid, he tendered his final resigna- 
tion ; and in July of that year the Board requested the 
joint Presbyteries to meet at Unity Church, in Lincoln 
county, to choose his successor. 

Professor Sparrow delivered the annual address at the 
examination, July 31, 1839. Soon after that time he 
retired from his position, as Professor of Languages, to 
accept the presidency of Hampden-Sidney College, 
in Virginia. 

The administration of President Morrison embraced 
a period of only about three years. But these were 
eventful and momentous years. They served to calm 
the fears and brighten the hopes of the friends of the 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 105 

College by demonstrating that the institution was estab- 
lished on a firm basis; that its usefulness was no longer 
problematical, and that its success was reasonably assured. 
While the Manual Labor department had not accom- 
plished all its friends had hoped for, it had not been 
altogether useless. It had done something towards in- 
vigorating the health and lessening the expenses of the 
students. It had biased the public mind in favor of the 
enterprise, and served a useful part in building up the 
institution. This being accomplished, it was wisely 
removed, like the scaffold, which is necessary in the 
erection of a building, but useless and obstructive after- 
wards. 

But our works are judged by their results, as trees by 
their fruits. We have seen some of the results of this 
administration, but to judge fairly we should follow the 
career in life of Dr. Morrison's more immediate pupils. 
To this there must necessarily be a limit. Let the limit 
be to the graduates in the first and second classes, for* 
the years 1840 and 1841. These numbered twenty- 
three. Eleven of these entered the Gospel ministry; 
four became physicians; three were farmers; two stud- 
ied Law, and two were teachers by profession. All of 
these, almost without exception, have been useful and 
successful in their several avocations, while some have 
attained to marked pre-eminence. It is also worthy of 
note that a large majority of these graduates taught 



106 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

school before entering the professions. In this role the 
writer bore an humble part. But while others, doubt- 
less, were more successful, it is a source of great satis- 
faction to him to know that at least six of his pupils 
subsequently graduated from his own Alma JIater. 

From these, and other considerations which the limits 
of this paper will not allow of review, we feel amply 
warranted in the conclusion that the main objects for 
which Davidson College was founded were realized, as 
fully as they possibly could be, in President Morrison's 
administration. 

The Rev. Robert Hall Morrison, D. D., is an heredi- 
tary Presbyterian, and of Scotch descent. He was born 
in Rocky River congregation, Cabarrus county, North 
Carolina, September 8, 1798, and was prepared for col- 
lege, at Rocky River Academy, by the Rev. John 
Makemie Wilson, D. D. He graduated from the Uni- 
versity of his native State in 1818, in a class with James 
K. Polk, the late Bishop Green, of Mississippi, and 
others of national reputation. Having taught school 
and studied Theology, he was licensed to preach the 
Gospel, by Concord Presbytery, in 1820, and immedi- 
ately elected a commissioner to the General Assembly, 
at its next meeting in Philadelphia. He was then, for 
three years, pastor of Fayetteville Church, and engaged 
at the same time in editing a literary and religious 
magazine. Returning to Concord Presbytery about the 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 107 

year 1827, he became pastor of Sugar Creek Church, 
and preached statedly, for some time, also, in Charlotte. 
From these labors he was called to the College. 

Thus " native and to the manor born"; foremost, as 
we have seen, in every effort to establish the institution, 
and recognized as "primus inter pares" in all the rela- 
tions of life through which he had passed, he was justly 
regarded as pre-eminently qualified for the position 
which he so conscientiously and successfully filled, as 
the first President of Davidson College. 

This venerable, good and great — yes, this " grand old 
man," is still living, at the advanced age of eighty-nine 
years. He resides at his Cottage Home, near the banks 
of the mountain-born and historic Catawba, loved, hon- 
ored and revered by all who know him. But having 
lived more than fourscore years — quite beyond the pe- 
riod allotted to man — but not without "labor and sor- 
row," he has virtually accomplished his day, and is now 
a historic character. Like the great Apostle to the 
Gentiles, he may await his summons to "enter into that 
rest that remaineth to the people of God," with the ex- 
clamation, "I have fought a good fight. I have fin- 
ished my course. I have kept the faith; henceforth 
there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which 
the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that 
day, and not to me only, but unto all them, also, that 
love His appearing." 



THE ADMIHISTRATIOU 



OF 



Rev. SAMUEL WILLIAMSON, D. D., 

SECOND PRESIDENT OF DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 



BY A. WHITE, Esq., CLASS OF 1847, 

SUMTER, S. C. 



Though "the golden sun, 
The planets, all the infinite hosts of heaven, 
Are shining on the sad abodes of death," 

there is a voice within the soul of man that tells of a 
life " beyond the confines of the tomb." 

" Celestial voices 
Hymn it unto our souls ; according harps 
By angel fingers touched when the mild stars 
Of morning sang together, sound forth still 
The song of our great immortality." 

This instinct has existed in every age and among 
every people. It is the germ whose outgrowth is seen 
in the efforts of the living to perpetuate the memory of 
their lost. Hence the wondrous monumental tombs of 
ancient Egypt. Hence the efforts of the Patriarchs of 
our faith to preserve the sepulchers of their dead and to 



110 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

hand down the memory of their virtues. Hence the 
universal feeling of mankind, so beautifully voiced by 
the great Roman lyrist, when he breaks forth in his tri- 
umphant song, "non omnis moriar" 

And to-day, we but manifest our kinship with human- 
ity and our heritage of the best instincts of the race, 
when we attempt to rear these memorials to our hon- 
ored dead, and to hold up the record of their lives as 
exemplars for the generations to come. 

" No life can be pure in its purpose and strong in its strife, 
And all life not be purer and stronger thereby." 

Rev. Samuel Williamson, second President of David- 
son College, holds a prominent place in the records of 
the first half century of her existence, having occupied 
his chair for more than one-fourth of this period, a term 
of service double that of any of his successors. It was 
his lot to preside over her destinies in the early days of 
her infancy and her poverty, to bear up her fortunes 
under all the discouragements of the uncertain venture. 
He left her when the splendid legacy of the liberal and 
large-hearted Chambers, by making her the richest col- 
lege in the South, had apparently assured her success 
and opened before her a brilliant future. 

Dr. Williamson was born within the bounds of Beth- 
esda Church, in York county, South Carolina, on the 
12th of June, 1795. He was the son of Samuel Wil- 
liamson, a Ruling Elder of Bethesda Church, and one 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. Ill 

of the patriot band who upheld the cause of liberty in 
the old Revolution. Of four brothers, one became, like 
him, a minister of the Gospel, the others Ruling Elders in 
the several churches to which they afterwards belonged. 
The great-grandfather of Dr. Williamson came from 
Scotland to Ireland soon after the victory of King Wil- 
liam at the Boyne. His grandfather emigrated from Ire- 
land, first to Pennsylvania and afterwards to Lancaster 
county, South Carolina. It thus appears that he came of 
that sturdy Scotch-Irish lineage to whose integrity, piety 
and love of truth and independence we owe so much of 
the civil and religious liberty we now enjoy. His birth 
was near the stirring days of the old Revolution, when 
the desolating effects of war, but recently again so 
familiar to us, were visible on every hand, and the hard- 
ships and privations of pioneer life were endured by all 
around him. His youth was passed among those who 
had ventured property, and life itself, in the great strug- 
gle, and from whose lips he doubtless heard many a 
thrilling story of hardships endured, of battles fought, of 
defeats survived or victories won, well calculated to 
impress him with a sense of the realities and responsi- 
bilities of the life on which he had entered. The road to 
learning had not then been "macadamized" by cords of 
Yankee school-books, and the country was as yet hap- 
pily ignorant of the communistic free school heresy of our 
day. His early lessons were doubtless conned in the old 



112 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

log school-house from Pike and Murray, the American 
Spelling Book and the Columbian Orator — names well- 
nigh unknown to this generation. He appears, from 
certificates of proficiency and character still in existence, 
to have been at one time a pupil of Rev. Robert B. 
AYalker, who taught at Bethesda Church, and later of 
Rev. James AVallis, President of Providence Academy, 
in Xorth Carolina. Desirous of a fuller course of study 
than these institutions afforded, yet without the means 
necessary to this end, he commenced that work of teach- 
ing to which he was destined in after years to devote so 
much of his time and strength. 

The first glimpse of him after his academic course is 
as a teacher in Sumter county, S. C, where, during the 
year 1817, he taught a country school and prepared him- 
self for college. In the fall of 1817 he entered the 
Senior Class of the South Carolina College, in Colum- 
bia, and was graduated in December, 1818. Though 
from the unusual brevity of his course he took no dis- 
tinction, we may infer the favorable impression made 
on his fellow-students from the fact that the much cov- 
eted prize of Society valedictorian was conferred upon 
him. As a further indication of early promise, we may 
here record the testimonial of Dr. Jonathan Maxcy, 
President of the College, dated December 8, 1818: "I 
hereby certify that Mr. Samuel Williamson has been 
regularly educated in this College, and has received the 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE, 113 

degree of Bachelor of Arts. Mr. Williamson has sus- 
tained an unblemished character, and by his industry, 
talents and learning has acquired the esteem and respect 
of all his teachers. In my opinion few young men can 
rank with him for eminent abilities, and I declare that 
I know no graduate of this College whom I would 
more readily recommend as being qualified to be an 
instructor of youth." The value of this testimonial 
will be better appreciated when it is remembered that 
Dr. Maxcy had presided over the College from its 
foundation, and had seen go forth from its halls Pres- 
ton, Legare, McDuffie, and a score of others who reached 
the highest posts of honor in their native State, or won 
applause and fame in the councils of the nation. 

Leaving college, he soon became principal of Bethel 
Academy, in his native county. At what time his 
thoughts were first turned to the ministry we have no 
means of knowing, but after giving up the academy we 
find him an inmate of the household of Rev. James 
Adams, with whom he appears to have gone over the 
usual course of theological study. The records of Con- 
cord Presbytery tell us that he was licensed to preach in 
1822. 

In September of the same year he was united in mar- 
riage with Miss Jane Adams, daughter of his preceptor, 
an union harmonious and happy for the remarkable 
term of fifty- eight years, when it was terminated by her 
death in 1880. 



114 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

He was called to the pastorate of Providence Church, 
in ^Xorth Carolina, in 1823, where he labored until 1840, 
when he was elected Professor of Languages in this 
College. In 1841, on the resignation of Dr. Morrison, 
he was elected to the presidency. Here for thirteen 
years he labored zealously in the discharge of his varied 
duties as President, Chaplain, Professor of Mental and 
Moral Philosophy, Natural Philosophy, Astronomy, 
Chemistry, International Law, Geology and other 
branches, the mere enumeration of which will serve to 
show the range of study to which he was forced to 
apply himself. And there are many now in this pres- 
ence who received instruction from his lips, or sat under 
his preaching, far better qualified than the writer to 
judge, who can bear testimony to the ability and fidelity 
with which he discharged his multifarious duties. 

His early training had rendered him peculiarly quali- 
fied for the work to which he was called in shaping the 
character of the College and fitting it for usefulness in 
its special field. With no aid from the State and with- 
out endowment by the rich, he had to look alone to the 
support of Christian parents who felt the need of moral 
as well as mental culture for their sons, and his was the 
task to convince them that here their wishes could and 
should be realized. 

Associated with him as Professor of Languages was 
Rev. S. B. O. Wilson, of Virginia, an accomplished 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 115 

scholar and teacher, and a polished Christian gentleman. 
Of commanding presence and elegant manners, genial 
in disposition and charming in conversation, he was 
always ready to cheer and aid his pupils in their stud- 
ies and to inspire them with that love of classic lore 
with which his own mind was so thoroughly imbued. 
The Chair of Mathematics was filled by Professor Mor- 
timer D. Johnson, a kind-hearted gentleman, modest 
and diffident in the extreme, but a profound scholar and 
a faithful and conscientious teacher. 

During this administration one hundred and seventy- 
three young men were graduated with the degree of A. 
B., while many others completed shorter courses of 
study and went forth to their life-work. As evidence 
of the honest work done here, the record of many of 
these lives may be adduced. 

*One became a Judge of the Supreme Court of North 
Carolina, and left a record second to none who have 
filled that high post of honor, f Another, after adorn- 
ing the Bench of his adopted State, became a member 
of the Confederate States Senate, while numberless oth- 
ers have been State legislators and Senators, eminent 
ministers of the Gospel, or gallant leaders of brigades 
and divisions in the armies of the Confederacy. 



*Hon. W. P. Bynum, of Charlotte, N. C. 
tHon. J. M. Baker, of Lake City, Fla. 



116 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

Dr. Williamson possessed a fine physical frame, not 
of large proportions, but firmly and symmetrically knit 
together, giving evidence of great power of endurance, 
and fitting him for the arduous fields in which he was 
called to labor. Fearless by nature, and of strong and 
well-defined convictions on all questions of morality and 
religion, he was ready at all proper times to give expres- 
sion to his views, and "a reason for the faith that was 
in hitn." He possessed little of that finesse and policy 
which often enable men of the world to conquer when 
they appear to yield. Despising the arts of the dema- 
gogue or the intriguer, his course was direct and onw T ard 
to the point lie sought to reach. With a mind trained 
to study, and a memory retentive, well ordered and 
stored with the fruits of years of toil, it, was easy for 
him to make any special preparation "on the spur of 
the moment." 

As illustrating this power, an incident during the 
writer's college course may be related. On one Sab- 
bath morning, as he glanced over his audience, his quick 
eye detected the presence of a stranger, in whom he fan- 
cied he saw one of more than ordinary note. Ignorant 
as to who his hearer was, but unwilling to deliver the 
sermon prepared in routine for the day, he set himself 
to study in the brief interval allowed him during the 
preliminary services. The result was a discourse that 
surprised and delighted his hearers, and called forth next 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 117 

day the above explanation in answer to an inquiring 
friend. The stranger proved to be the lamented Pro- 
fessor Mitchell, who, unknown and unannounced, had 
dropped quietly in to spend the Sabbath as he journeyed 
in one of his trips to the peaks of Western North Caro- 
lina, with which his name and fame are now so honor- 
ably yet so tragically associated. 

He was genial in disposition, fond of the society of the 
young, and capable of making himself agreeable to and 
influential over his pupils. Without the brilliant gleam 
of the meteor, that symbol of what we call genius, he 
shone with the steadier light of the planet, typical of 
that less splendid, though more valuable, power which we 
call talent. He realized fully the duty that the one tal- 
ent or the five talents committed to his trust were not 
to be buried, but so used as to win the Master's "well 
done/' even though no world-wide applause should greet 
him. One fully capable of forming a just estiuiate, 
who knew him well, writes in answer to an inquiry : " It 
was my privilege to be a member of his family for three 
years during my college course, therefore had every 
opportunity of learning his real character in the home 
circle. There he was amiability personified. He was 
ever gentle and dignified with wife and children. In 
social life, he was a delightful companion. He knew 
how to lead in conversation, to interest and to instruct. 
He knew also how to listen. Among his brethren he 



118 SEMI-CENTENAKY ADDRESSES. 

was regarded a strong man. when such men as Dr. 
Cyrus Johnston and Dr. Hall Morrison were his fellow- 
presbyters." 

After his resignation of the presidency in 1854. he 
was called to the charge of Hopewell and Steel Creek 
Churches, in Mecklenburg county. North Carolina. 
where he labored with success among an attached peo- 
ple during 1855 and 1856. Late in the latter year he 
removed to Arkansas and commenced his work as pas- 
tor of the church at Washington in that State, in Janu- 
ary. 1857. Here he continued in active work for more 
than twenty years. Then, after a ministry of more than 
half a century, and with the weight of more than four- 
score years upon him. the physical man began to fail 
and the immortal tenant to -how signs of sympathy. 
Yet for five years longer, down to 1882, he continued 
occasionally to preach. But the end was now at hand, 
when the "silver cord was to be loosed and the golden 
bowl to be broken, when the dust was to return to the 
earth as it was. and the spirit unto God who gave it." 
On the 12th of March. 1882, full of years, and with 
the consciousness of life's duty fully done, in the midst 
of his family, and surrounded by loving and sorrowing 
friends, he passed quietly from the toil and strife of 
earth to the peaceful rest of Heaven. 

•• Like one who draws the drapery of his couch 
About him. and lies down to pleasant dreams." 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 119 

That his closing years in the land of his adoption 
were in accord with his earlier life, may be seen from an 
extract from reminiscences of a writer now of Chicago, 
formerly of Washington, Arkansas. He writes : " The 
Rev. Samuel Williamson was for a number of years 
pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Washington. He 
was a ripe scholar, a fine preacher, a conscientious Chris- 
tian gentleman, and commanded the respect, the esteem 
and the affection of people of all sects. I have read 
somewhere that there is such a thing as constitutional 
religion; that there is a certain temper and frame of 
mind naturally productive of devotion, and that certain 
people are born with the virginal principles of piety. 
Good old Dr. Williamson came as near being such a 
man as I have ever encountered in my wanderings in 
this vale of tears." 

As the writer looks back to his boyhood days, when 
first amid these groves he met him, and recalls the many 
of that day and generation who have passed away, how 
forcibly is he reminded that 

f< They are gathering homeward from every land, 

One by one ; 
As their weary feet touch the shining strand, 

One by one, 
Their brows are encircled with a golden crown, 
Their travel-stained garments are all laid down, 
And clad in white raiment, they rest on the mead, 
Where the Lamb ever loveth, his children to lead/' 



THE ADMIHISTRATIOH 



OF 



Rev, Drury Lacy, D. D., 

THIRD PRESIDENT OF DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 



BY Rev. R. Z. JOHNSTON, CLASS OF 1858, 

LINCOLNTON, N. C. 



Dr. Lacy's administration began in July, 1855, and 
closed July, I860, lasting five years. (He was elected 
the third President of Davidson College, January 24, 
1855). About three hundred students were enrolled 
during these five years. Fifty-five graduated and re- 
ceived diplomas from Dr. Lacy's hands, and of these 
only twenty-seven are now living. What memories are 
awakened as we review those years ! 

The professors associated with Dr. Lacy were Rev. E. 

F. Rockwell, D. D., General D. H. Hill, Colonel J. A. 

Leland, C. D. Fishburne, and, later, Professor W. C. 

Kerr was added (one of the most learned and faithful 

of men, and though a native of North Carolina and a 

graduate of her University, the College lias never had a 

superior professor). 
6 



122 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

The classes were greatly reduced in the winter of 
1854- ; 55 by an unfortunate disturbance, which sus- 
pended the exercises for six weeks or more. In Febru- 
ary a few of the old students began to return to the Col- 
lege, but the higher classes never filled up. The Fresh- 
man Class, however, grew to something more worthy of 
the name of a college class; but the new enthusiastic 
professors were very extravagant in their requirements 
upon the Freshman Class, quorum pars fui, to my dis- 
comfort and sorrow, until vacation came and we had 
successfully, though with fear and trembling, passed the 
new sort of examinations which came with the new 
administration. The autumn of 1855 brought the Col- 
lege about its usual number of students, except for the 
Junior and Senior Classes, which never filled up after 
the unpleasant disturbance, and the uncompromising 
Faculty would not suffer any of us hopeful and ambi- 
tious Sophs to advance and fill up their depleted ranks, 
till we began to indulge the conceit that the new admin- 
istration was anxious to work off the old material (in the 
Junior and Senior Classes) left on its hands, and was 
nursing and drilling the courageous Sophomores as the 
first children, whose graduation would mark a new era 
in the College and bring it (the new administration) into 
conspicuous favor. Well, we graduated in 1858, but 
the pleasant conceit had all been knocked out of us be- 
fore we saw the sunshine of that midsummer day; for 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 123 

in spite of Dr. Lacy's great kindness and fondness for 
us, he could not control those industrious associates of 
his in the Faculty, who practiced their new schemes 
upon us, and vied with each other in their extravagant 
demands upon us, until the greater part, and perhaps 
the more spirited fellows of us, were so pressed and 
rushed and harried and pushed that they left the Col- 
lege in disgust, leaving not a baker's dozen to graduate, 
and we so exhausted and belittled that we could not 
reasonably fill the high expectations. 

First Here let me signalize the first conspicuous fac- 
tor in the Lacy administration. It was the high drilling. 
Who is he that studied here in those years and remem- 
bers Professor Rockwell's lecture-room ? Let him speak, 
if he remembers a recitation ever omitted in that depart- 
ment. Some of us had read "The Ars Poetica" before 
we came to College, and Professor Rockwell made us 
read it the last term in our course, and we well remem- 
ber how he hurried us in the subjunctive mood, when 
we were trying to be reverend and dignified Seniors, 
about to be called Alumni. Did any poor fellow ever 
escape General Hill's drill? He prepared an elaborate 
work on Algebra here, with special attention to "The 
Theory of Equations/' and he would insist on our class 
working out the long answers to the problems to be 
compiled in his book. It is lonesome at Davidson with- 
out the old General, and I have not seen him here on this 



124 SEMI-CEXTEXARY ADDRESSES. 

occasion; but if he is here, and has ever secured a roy- 
alty on that book, I want to serve a claim on him in 
behalf of my class. As there are only four of us liv- 
ing, we will be satisfied with $1,000 each, which will do 
more to arouse our interest in the College just now than 
anything I can imagine. 

Colonel Leland did not enjoy an early morning drill 
any more than the classes did, and he had to do his hard- 
est work before breakfast, when he would impatiently 
wait till we would cover the lecture-room with figures, 
requiring all we knew of Algebra, Calculus and Geome- 
try to demonstrate some principle in optics or Astronomy, 
and then tell us, a Oh, gentlemen! I only wanted the 
theory " ; but took care not to tell us till he saw we could 
work the figures. It was hard to keep on good terms 
with him, and he knew it; and late in the afternoons 
we would be softened and cheered with the sweetest 
music, which was borne on the breeze over the campus 
from his parlor, binding us very tenderly to his delight- 
ful home. 

Professor Fishburne could find the hardest Greek 
idioms that were ever composed by the old classics, and 
he sometimes seemed to get into perfect darkness and we 
could only hear him. Once he got his hands on us, in 
our Senior year, to finish us off, and we began to think 
that there would be no graduates that year, if we could 
not prevail on him to go slow ; and by the help of a 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 125 

dear, sweet wife (whom he found in Virginia about that 
time) we prevailed on him, but I doubt if he ever told 
the Faculty. 

This high drill has been prominent in the College 
ever since and is its boast to-day. It is out of place on 
this occasion to ask if this feature has not been over- 
done ! Not many boys could stand it — not many would 
stand it. The graduates did not increase as was reasona- 
bly expected. The class of 1858 (the first one entirely 
in this administration) was not as large as the first classes 
of 1840-41. Why was this? It is respectfully sug- 
gested that this high drilling has separated from this 
College many young men whose means could not sup- 
port it, and who were reasonably expected to come here, 
but who sought help in other schools (which were then 
multiplied) by which they were fitted for such places of 
honor and trust as this country provided and which they 
are now filling — judges, representatives, State and county 
officials, magistrates, merchants, manufacturers and edit- 
ors, and, as such, are the leaders of the people to-day. 

Fellow Alumni ! we have been out on the fields and 
we have learned that the men whose training has kept 
them nearest to the people among whom they live and 
whom they serve have been the most influential and suc- 
cessful in life. 

Second. Another conspicuous factor that entered the 
history of our College when Dr. Lacy came to it was 



126 SEMI -CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

the coining of railroads, telegraphs and cheap postage. 
The railroad had just reached up into our State, and 
students came from the South to Charlotte by rail; and 
we had just celebrated the arrival of the North Carolina 
Railroad to Salisbury, when it was announced that the 
distinguished pastor of the Raleigh Church was coming 
to Davidson. But while railroads brought young men 
to the College, they carried, perhaps, twice as many from 
this region to the West. The westward movement began 
about that time and continues to this day. The old 
order of things was retiring as railroads advanced and 
afforded new, rapid and frequent communication among 
the people. Prosperity was spreading over the State, 
asylums were first opened, first-class schools were multi- 
plied, the office of State Superintendent of Public In- 
struction, established in 1853, in charge of the lamented 
Dr. Wiley, worked up the popular education till the 
State government reflected his wise views ; the first Nor- 
mal School, under Dr. Craven, was chartered, at Trinity 
College, about that time; Pierce presided at Washing- 
ton, and the Buchanan administration followed the first 
two Northern Presidents, elected by the people, though 
Southern Vice-Presidents were still associated with their 
administrations; State Sovereignty, Squatter Sover- 
eignty, Know-Nothings, &c, were discussed in newspa- 
pers, and the slavery question prevailed over all others. 
Free suffrage came into the Constitution of our State and 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 127 

tbe Democratic administrations followed under Govern- 
ors Bragg and Ellis. The old order went rapidly, and 
the new came faster, and this College, though now so 
richly endowed, and its teaching force more than doubled, 
had competition and rival institutions on every hand. 
The students generally came from the plantations, and 
were young men when they came, full of healthy vigor. 
The old order of things did not support fine livery sta- 
bles in the old towns before the railroads came, and the 
boys were used to stock and could harness and manage 
a fine horse, and some of the finest driving used to be 
seen in these groves. And the ladies who rode with us 
were, perhaps, no prettier than their daughters here 
to-day, but (and may I be pardoned if I say) they were 
sweeter. In those clays very few ladies lived here, but it 
was understood by the " sisters, cousins and aunts", that 
they were expected here on the 22d February, on 
Christmas and Commencement, when summer fruits 
and melons were abundant and the crops laid by. 

Third, Another event that was conspicuous during Dr. 
Lacy\s term here was the erection of this building — per- 
haps the largest and most imposing temple of learning 
in the State — the magnificent contribution of Maxwell 
Chambers, of Rowan county, North Carolina. . Mr. 
Chambers was a successful man, strong in his attach- 
ments to the Presbyterians, did a prosperous business 
in Charleston, South Carolina, and returned to North 



128 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

Carolina and died in Salisbury, in February, 1855, 
leaving a residuary estate of nearly a quarter of a mil- 
lion dollars to the College — more than its first charter 
allowed it to hold. The College compromised its claim 
and received $200,000. This was the most substantial 
help the College ever received, and this building was 
planned and constructed while Dr. Lacy presided over 
its affairs. Being; twentv miles from a railroad, and 
skilled workmen being few, its design, appointments 
and completion came slowly and perhaps too costly. 
We saw the fountain in the basement opened, we sat on 
its pillars, we walked upon these walls as they went up, 
we sported about its columns in the moonlight; and as 
it approached completion, we searched for classic quota- 
tions, full of history, which were frequently heard from 
the young orators in the old campus. I quote from the 
last Commencement Exercises conducted in the old 
Chapel: "Nunc gratulamur, quod sub tua cura, splen- 
dissimum et magnificissimum aedificium erigitur."* (I do 
not know that this will pass for good Latin here to-day, 
but it did then). 

The career of Dr. Lacy is too fresh in the minds of 
all, and he has too recently passed away from us, to 
justify a public sketch of his life here and now. 



*Latin Salutatory by R. Z. Johnston, of Rowan county, North Caro- 
lina, July 15th, 1858. 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 129 

Let me say, he came to North Carolina from Virginia, 
well connected more majorum, and gave the enthusiasm 
of his mature years to our State, coming to the College 
at the age of 52. His administration was kind, and he 
supported the management most cordially, and his retire- 
ment in 1860, when the civil war was hastening, was 
seriously regretted. The department (Metaphysics) of 
learning conducted by him is one which young men can 
only begin in college, and Dr. Lacy drilled us in the best 
text-books then published. Believing the memory 
writes down everything where we shall be compelled to 
see it afterwards, he was the severest drill-master of the 
memory. But as men are greatest and best, not when 
they are wrestling with the world, not when putting 
forth startling qualities of power, nor when playing the 
hero in great contests, but when they are exhibiting most 
of the spirit of a little child, Dr. Lacy's life and ser- 
vice will stand the severest test. He was faithful in the 
lecture-room, but Sundays were his busiest days and the 
pulpit was his power, for it he was best trained — being 
the pastor, he preached to large assemblies, rarely with- 
out tears, and with an unction never surpassed in this 
State. He wept with us, prayed with us, laughed with 
us, sang with us and never forgot us. When McMahon 
returned victorious from the battle of Magenta all Paris 
went out to greet him and honor him. As he was pass- 
ing in triumph through the streets and boulevards a 



130 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

little child ran out towards him with a bunch of flowers 
* in her hands. He stooped down and lifted her up before 
him and she stood there, her arms twining about his 
neck as he rode on. This simple exhibition of gentle- 
ness towards a little child pleased the people more and 
seemed a more beautiful act in their eyes for the moment 
than all the memory of his heroic deeds, &c. So it was 
with our grand old President — his gentleness, his home 
life, his evangelical spirit and manner drew us to him 
and strengthened us and toned us up. His home life 
and his home were so bright and sunny that all who 
came within his doors were impressed with a healthy 
influence which went with them into future years. Its 
voices of love and prayer and song and sympathy come 
back to us over thirty years like melodies from the homes 
of boyhood. As the years have rolled on that sweet 
home has been broken up, and on the 1st of August, 
1884, the venerable man of 82 years was gathered to a 
better life and home above, and his body laid to rest at 
Raleigh, North Carolina. 

" Tears, love and honor he shall have, 
Through ages keeping green his grave." 



THE ADMIHISTRATIOH 



OF 



J. L. KIRKPATRICK, D. D., 

FOURTH PRESIDENT OF DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 



BY J. R. BLAKE, A. M., 

LATE CHAIRMAN OF FACULTY AND PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS IN DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 



The administration of Dt\ Kirkpatrick began in 1860. 
This was a pivotal point in the history of Davidson 
College. Old things were passing away and a new era 
was supposed to be dawning upon the fortunes of the 
institution. The princely munificence of Maxwell 
Chambers, who had recently bequeathed $258,000 to the 
College, was inspiring new hopes and filling the hearts 
of all friends of the enterprise with glowing anticipa- 
tions of its future prosperity and usefulness. Already 
the corps of instructors had been considerably enlarged; 
a massive central building had been erected, with exten- 
sive three-story wings, at a cost of $90,000. This was 
only one side of a quadrangular structure, which the 
New York architect had planned and submitted to the 
authorities as the basis for future expansion and devel- 



132 SEMI-CEXTEXARY ADDRESSES. 

opment. Already the spirit of innovation which was 
to have swept away the old dormitories and other build- 
ings, out of harmony with the new and splendid pro- 
gramme devised for the future, had accomplished much 
of its work, removing many of the old landmarks along 
the street line of the campus, and in front of the Phi 
Hall and other parts of the grounds. 

This sweeping policy was to have carried away with 
it, also, all that still remains of the present "Oak Row," 
"Elm Row" and "The Cedars," till the old Chapel 
would be left alone as a solitary monument of that 
quaint architecture which adorned these academic groves 
in earlier days. The "old 'campus" being thus oblit- 
erated and every obstruction removed, the eye of fancy 
was delighted with the vision of comfortable residences 
for the Faculty and graceful halls for other purposes 
rising around the "new campus" in the tasteful propor- 
tions of the most modern architecture. 

Such is an outline of the picture which loomed up 
before the imagination of those hopeful, faithful old 
guardians of our College. How to meet fully the de- 
mands of such a future, so full of bright anticipations, 
was the one absorbing, all-controlling question of the 
hour. To Dr. Kirkpatrick all eyes were turned as the 
one man available for the emergency. His elegant per- 
sonal and social culture, his rich and varied literary at- 
tainments, his fine taste and discriminating judgment, 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 133 

his high standing in the Church as an able theologian 
and pulpit orator — all these qualities, combined with an 
ever ready, vigorous common sense, made him the 
unanimous choice of the Board. After his election, so 
full and complete was the confidence he inspired by his 
wise and prudent counsels', as well as by his kind, con- 
ciliatory bearing, that his known wishes soon became 
practically supreme in the Board of Trustees. One of 
its most influential members remarked to me at the close 
of his administration that "they had given Dr. Kirk- 
patrick everything he had ever asked for," adding the 
graceful compliment: "He was a wise man; I never 
heard him say a foolish thing in my life." 

With such an environment and a clear apprehension 
of the work to be done, a consciousness of the high 
hopes and expectations of his friends, a full conviction 
of the unquestioning confidence and moral support of 
the Board, the new President entered upon his task with 
at)rave heart and determined will. He at once began 
the important work of completing and organizing his 
forces. He had the salaries of the professors raised 
from twelve hundred to fifteen hundred dollars. He 
corresponded extensively with professional educators, 
and with all the lights available diligently sought to 
secure the best results for the welfare of the College. 
While thus just entering upon the threshold of his use- 
fulness, pressing forward with all the energy which 



134 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

hope could inspire, and before the first year of his 
presidency expired, in the very fullness of expectation 
and confidence, the curtain fell — the black cloud of war 
burst upon the country, and President Lincoln^s procla- 
mation for 75,000 troops was issued. 

At this point only those who were actors, or who 
were personal observers of the times, can appreciate the 
situation. Wild enthusiasm, accompanied with a wilder 
confusion and demoralization, spread through all the 
colleges of the land. Where old men were shouldering 
their muskets, and middle-aged men were marshalling 
for battle, what could be expected from the noble, gen- 
erous, chivalric young men who filled our schools? 
Nothing less than what did occur. Their young blood 
rose to a boiling heat; our colleges became camps for 
military drill ; students and professors often volunteered 
en masse and marched to the front. All law and au- 
thority came to nought. " Inter arma silent leges." So 
it was at Davidson College. How changed the scefie ! 
These quiet academic shades almost deserted, or echoing 
only to the voice of the drill-master and the tread of the 
youthful soldier who lingered behind, our grave and 
thoughtful President found his occupation gone; yet he 
stood firmly and bravely at his post, directing, as best he 
could, the disorderly elements around him. His wise 
counsels, matured judgment and parental influence were 
now more than ever needed, in this hour of youthful 
delirium. 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 135 

Time passed on; the fever heat abated; the College 
authorities decided that the institution must not be 
closed, and directed the Faculty to remain ready for duty. 
The work of our President was from this time forward 
upon an entirely different plane. From the headship 
of an ideal college, whose possibilities seemed indefi- 
nitely great, he descended — or may we not rather say 
ascended — to the plane of a work more humble, it is 
true, but far more self-sacrificing, demanding far more 
Christian endurance, patriotic spirit and heroic perse- 
verance — a plane of self-abnegation, where patient res- 
ignation and all the lowly virtues which dignify and 
ennoble our fallen humanity are brought into ceaseless 
activity. Imagine a College President and Professor of 
Mental and Moral Science, elected to high honors, and 
whose abilities could have adorned any of the leading 
pulpits of the land, cheerfully, faithfully and labori- 
ously devoting his energies to teaching the rudiments of 
English and Latin Grammar to the neglected youth of 
the land whose schools had been broken up and them- 
selves refugees from their homes, with the occasional 
addition, perhaps, of some solitary soldier, disabled in 
battle, returned to complete his college course, which 
had been broken off by the call to arms ! Who, think 
you, was the greater, Cincinnatus leading his army as 
dictator of Rome or Cincinnatus resigning his power 
and following the plough as an humble tiller of the soil ? 



136 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

Those who observed Dr. Kirkpatrick from day to 
day, as he guarded and guided those exiled young men, 
whose homes were scattered from Virginia to Texas, 
noting his paternal solicitude for them, will bear testi- 
mony to the great usefulness of his labors and the true 
nobility of his character. Never once did he falter or 
hesitate as to the path of duty, although frequently 
solicited to accept positions of honor and emolument in 
other fields. This was done, too, at an immense per- 
sonal sacrifice to himself and his family. How vividly 
now does the picture of our noble President rise before 
me, as he bravely cheered our hearts, and rallied our 
hopes to heroic endurance, during those direful days of 
war, when the clouds hung so heavily and when the 
storm burst upon us in all its fury ! Amid privation 
and self-denial at his own fireside, cheerfully did he 
share with the soldiers the meagre supplies with which 
the depreciated salary in Confederate money barely 
furnished his own family. Davidson was the only col- 
lege in the Confederacy which was not closed during the 
war. Her wise and patriotic guardians persisted in 
keeping her doors open, and when the surrender came 
the President, with three of his original colleagues, were 
standing faithfully at their post awaiting further orders 
from the Board of Trustees. 

As a disciplinarian, Dr. Kirkpatrick was mild and 
gentle — perhaps too indulgent, rarely resorting to severe 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 137 

measures, but when occasion demanded he could rebuke 
with withering sarcasm and the keenest satire. I recall 
a notable occasion when it became his duty to lecture the 
students in a body for some disorders during the previ- 
ous night. So searching were his aptly chosen words, 
so crushing the moral force of his trenchant blows, that 
some of the offenders at once confessed the fault and apol- 
ogized for their part in the offence. The students were 
regarded by him in the light of children, and he by them 
as a father, occupying a position of parental guardian- 
ship and care. Their interests were his, each one was 
welcomed as a member of his family circle, where his 
hospitable home, with all its comforts, was ever open to 
minister to their service or pleasure. Few of those who 
were in College at that time will not be able to recall 
many lovely pictures of quiet home life drawn from 
this domestic circle. The ever cordial and winning 
manner of his devoted wife seemed to be a benediction 
to each one, as she received them not as strangers, but 
as children to her motherly heart. In times of trial or 
sickness they were visited in their rooms and tenderly 
nursed by all the ladies of the Faculty, or carried to the 
homes and watched over with gentle, loving attentions. 
I can recall many cases now when students were nursed 
for weeks by these devoted women. Blessed be their 
memories ! By such influences over the dear ones sepa- 
rated from homes and mothers many a wanderer has 



138 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

been reclaimed, many a lonely heart solaced and many a 
discouraged one stimulated to fresh effort in the battle 
of life. ' 

As a teacher, Dr. Kirkpatrick's method was Socratic, 
dissecting his subject with consummate skill, and lead- 
ing his pupil from point to point by questions which 
probed to the core every separate principle involved in 
the subject. His primary aim was to exercise and draw 
out each pupil's intellectual powers, thus training him 
to think for himself rather than to store his memory 
with facts or useful information, knowing that the power 
and habit of accurate thinking, in the very process of 
acquiring it, would lead to the accumulation of knowl- 
edge as a necessary consequence. 

His pulpit ministrations, also, were a source of great 
profit in the College. His sermons were of the highest 
order. Elegant diction, sharp analysis and resistless 
logic were blended with a freshness and power riveting 
the attention, and combined with an unction of spiritual 
fervor which imparted to the dullest truth an impression 
not easily effaced. As a writer of classic English, he 
could scarcely be surpassed ; for clearness, for perspi- 
cuity, for elegance, for the selection of the very choicest 
word to convey the idea, he was a model for imitation 
by the students in their rhetorical studies. His series 
of sermons on the young men of the Bible, besides many 
others of rare excellence will be recalled by those who 
were privileged listeners. 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 139 

The year following the collapse of the Southern cause 
Dr. Kirkpatrick was induced by the authorities of 
Washington and Lee University to accept a chair in the 
Faculty of that rising institution. Here, as at David- 
son, his characteristic traits gave him influence and 
power. He became the friend of General Lee and his 
wise and judicious adviser in all matters relating to edu- 
cational interests, with which he was so familiar. Here 
he closed his useful life, honored and beloved by all the 
Church for his work's sake. On his dying bed, a few 
days before the end came, he finished his work correct- 
ing the examination papers of his class that his college 
work might be completed, as was his life-work. Faith- 
ful to the end, he died in the harness. 

My task is done. Would it were more worthily done. 
With a true and loving loyalty have I woven this chap- 
let to the memory of my cherished friend. I knew him 
well, and I esteemed it a high privilege to call such a 
man my friend. For five eventful years we took sweet 
counsel together, and during the darkest hours of those 
dark days I ever found in his wise and prudent counsels 
a tower of strength, and in his brave and hopeful spirit 
a haven of rest. 

u But what avails the gift of empty fame ? 

He lived to God ; 
He loved the sweetness of another Name, 

And gladly trod 
The ruffged ways of earth, that he might be 

Helper, or friend, 
And in the joy of this bis ministry 

Be spent and spend." 



THE ADMIHISTRATIOH 



OF 



REV. 6. Mm IgPHAIL, d, d, ll d. : 

SIXTH PRESIDENT OF DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 



BY REV. W. A. MILNER, CLASS OF 1870, 

SUMMERVILLE, GA. 



This administration began in 1866 and ended in 1871. 
Brief as it was — only five years — it was nevertheless 
one of the most prosperous that Davidson College has 
ever enjoyed. The work done and the character of the 
work, together with the circumstances under which it 
was performed, all go to show this. 

It was during this administration that the students, 
at the suggestion and under the superintendence and 
guidance of the Faculty, transferred from the neighbor- 
ing forests the shady oaks and elms that beautify and 
adorn the College campus. During this administration 
diplomas were conferred upon sixty young men — upon 
one in 1867, upon three in 1868, upon twelve in 1869, 
upon thirteen in 1870, and upon thirty-one in 1871. 



142 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

The fact that nearly all of these sixty graduates are 
dow honorable, useful, honored men — some in one sphere 
and some in another, some at home and some in foreign 
lands — speaks volumes for the character of the work 
done here in the days of McPhail. The fact that one- 
fifth of the present Board of Trustees of this institu- 
tion were educated here during that same period is some- 
thing more than a mere straw pointing in the same 
direction. 

But in order to form a just and correct estimate of 
Dr. McPhaiPs administration we should remember that 
owing to the general prostration of Southern industries 
and enterprises, resulting from the war between the 
States, the number of students who attended the Col- 
lege while it was under his care was quite small for the 
first two or three years. There was scarcely a score of 
students in attendance in 1866, but with the returning 
prosperity of the country numbers gradually and con- 
stantly increased, until in 1870 there were one hundred 
and twenty-five matriculates, perhaps the largest num- 
ber ever upon the roll in any one year since the insti- 
tution was founded. 

It must also be borne in mind that several changes 
occurred in the Faculty during Dr. McPhaiPs adminis- 
tration. In 1868, in consequence of the departure of 
Professor Rockwell, upon his election to the presidency 
of Concord Female College, at Statesville, Xorth Caro- 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 143 

lina, the duties of the Latin Chair devolved upon Pro- 
fessor Richardson, who was before only Professor of 
Greek and Modern Languages. During that year, also, 
Rev. Charles Phillips, D. D., was elected to the Chair 
of Mathematics and Engineering, to fill the vacancy 
occasioned by the resignation of Professor Alexander 
Mclver, who had accepted a position in the University 
of North Carolina. In 1869, William J. Martin was 
elected Professor of Chemistry, Geology and Natural 
History, and Mr. Paul P. Winn was made adjunct Pro- 
fessor of Ancient Languages. 

But notwithstanding the brevity of Dr. McPhaiPs 
administration, notwithstanding it began under circum- 
stances that were trying, and notwithstanding there were 
several changes in the corps of instructors, as already 
intimated, its distinctive characteristic was a growing 
prosperity. Now 7 , what was the cause of that pros- 
perity? 

As we should always render " honor to whom honor 
is due," we note the fact, in passing, that something — 
that much is due to those friends and patrons of the 
College who stood by it in those dark days of impover- 
ishment and depression. Poor as they were, they cher- 
ished a fond — would it be too much to say an inherent 
and hereditary — attachment to the cause of liberal edu- 
cation. This, as it had caused their ancestors to found 
the institution at first, as it had nourished and cherished 



144 SEMI-CEXTEXAKY ADDRESSES. 

it from the beginning, and which is to-day the earnest 
and pledge of its future prosperity, had no little to do 
with the success of Dr. McPhaiPs administration. 

In the next place let me emphasize the fact, that every 
member of the Faculty, from 1866 to 1871, contributed 
something to the successful management of the College 
during that period. 

For two years Rev. E. F. Rockwell was a faithful 
assistant of Dr. McPhail. A graduate of Yale, a life- 
long student, and with his varied experience obtained in 
the school-room, in the work of the ministry and as an 
incumbent of other chairs in this College, the Professor 
of Latin and Modern History was well suited to per- 
form his part. 

In the department of Mathematics and Engineering 
we had Professors Alexander Mclver and Rev. Charles 
Phillips, D. D. Professor Mclver, a man worthy and 
well qualified, was useful, faithful, respected. On North 
Carolina soil there's no need that a Georgia tongue 
should speak the praises of Dr. Phillips. \Te all know 
that in every sense he is a great man. 

Xot to anticipate, I merely wish beforehand to endorse 
what Colonel Banks has to say with reference to Pro- 
fessor J. R. Blake. His subsequent promotion to the 
presidency of the institution sufficiently evinces the fact 
that his chair was ablv and honorablv filled. 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 145 

As for Professor Martin, his retention in the Faculty 
for nearly a score of years is worth more than any 
words of mine in attestation of the truth that he con- 
tributed something to the administration of Dr. McPhail, 
albeit he was his co-worker for only one year. 

Professor W. G. Richardson was a courteous, schol- 
arly gentleman, who, with his worthy assistant, Rev. P. 
P. Winn, did good work for the College in the depart- 
ment of Ancient Languages. 

Of Rev. J. Monroe Anderson it is enough to say that 
his department — Belles-lettres — was under the guidance 
of a skillful hand. Ever at his post, he left his impress 
upon the administration. ♦ 

As for Dr. McPhail, our honored President and tal- 
ented instructor in Mental and Moral Science, we remark 
that, with his varied and solid attainments, he brought 
to his tasks the experience of many years as teacher, 
pastor, and president of a similar institution in one of 
the Northern States. A close and indefatigable student 
all his life, his scholarship was at once accurate, thor- 
ough and extensive. His administrative talents, too, 
were of a high order. He seems to have gotten firm 
hold upon the great regulative principle of just govern- 
ment — that is to say, of government Divinely ordained 
— the only government that is entitled to the respect and 
obedience of men. His aim and endeavor was to con- 
trol the young men committed to his charge by the 
power of a well-instructed conscience. 7 



146 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

But, after all, you will allow rue to express the opin- 
ion that the growing prosperity of Davidson College 
under Dr. McPhaiPs administration was due not so 
much to the splendid abilities of any one as to the com- 
bined power, social, intellectual, moral and spiritual, of 
all the members of the Faculty at that time. If some 
of them were theoretical, others of them were practical. 
If some were austere, others were jovial. Together 
they constituted a learned, capable, judicious, efficient 
Faculty. 

In conclusion, brethren of the Alumni Association, I 
thank you for this privilege of speaking a word com- 
memorative of that administration, which, though in 
some respects it began so inauspiciously, was conducted 
so successfully, and ended so sadly — with a funeral, that 
of its distinguished President, instead of with a grand 
commencement. 



the adhihistratiob: 



OF 



Professor J. R. Blake, 

CHAIRMAN OF FACULTY. 



BY ALEX. R. BANKS, A. M., CLASS OF 1869. 



This administration was unique in its character and 
remarkable in its history. It is distinguished from all 
the others as the " Chairmanship Administration," in 
which each member of the Faculty was made to feel his 
personal responsibility, not only for the discipline and 
progress of the students, but for every interest involv- 
ing the internal management and welfare of the College. 
The Chairman, as the presiding officer and the executive 
head of this system, was, of course, responsible for the 
successful management and the carrying out of all its 
details, and hence, while it may be necessary to assume, 
as we proceed, that Professor Blake, by virtue of his 
office and the responsibilities it imposed, was the leading 
factor, still it must never be forgotten that his able col- 
leagues were all his efficient auxiliaries. By his side 



148 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

stood the clear-headed, indefatigable Martin, the original 
and bold thinker, Phillips, the energetic, enthusiastic 
Latimer, the conscientious and faithful Sampson, the 
modest and scholarly Hepburn, the polite and cultivated 
Richardson, the pious and earnest Anderson, with others 
who were associated w T ith Professor Blake all along the 
line of advancement, and each of whom did noble ser- 
vice in the cause of education and for the upbuilding of 
our Alma Mater. 

It is well known that Professor Blake, though having 
the fullest confidence of his Faculty, was theoretically 
opposed to this system, as not being so well suited to 
project the College and its interests upon the outside 
public, and that he declined to accept the responsibilities 
of the "Chairmanship" until forced to yield by the 
urgent and unanimous appeals of his colleagues. How- 
ever, when once committed and elected by the Trustees, 
he threw himself into the work with all the zeal and 
energy of his ardent nature, sustained to the last, and 
at every point, by the undivided support and sympathy 
of his noble co-laborers. 

The history of this administration it is now my privi- 
lege and pleasure to narrate. In the outset, I have said 
that it was remarkable. The statistics show that this 
was an era extending from June, 1871, to June, 1877 — 
at once progressive and aggressive in the history of the 
College. A simple enumeration of the changes wrought 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 149 

in the organic life of the institution during this period 
would be sufficient to mark it as a period of unsurpassed 
energy and enterprise. 

First It was held to be a prime necessity to secure 
and retain an able and efficient Faculty, if the College 
was ever to attain any high degree of excellence. To 
this end the tuition fees were greatly increased, as the 
only means then available to meet the demands, owing to 
the embarrassed state of the invested funds of the Col- 
lege. 

Second. To secure a high standard of scholarship 
rigid entrance examinations were enforced, and students 
who were not prepared were sent back to the academies; 
and finally, when many of the schools could not prepare 
their pupils for our College, rather than lower the stand- 
ards a sub-fresh class was established to supplement the 
work of the academies. 

Third. To enlarge the usefulness and patronage, as 
well as to remove the provincial character of the College, 
the government was extended so as to include not only 
the Presbyteries of North Carolina, but also the Pres- 
byteries of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. 

Fourth. During this period a financial agent was sent 
into the field to increase the permanent fund of the Col- 
lege and bring its merits before the public, which agency 
has continued to the present, with short intermissions, 
with happy results for the College. 



150 SEMI-CEXTENARY ADDRESSES. 

Fifth. During this period, also, the present valuable 
executive committee system was organized and substi- 
tuted for the old and less efficient methods. 

Sixth. The curriculum of the College, also, now, for 
the first time, began to be extended and liberalized by 
the introduction of elective studies and alternative 
courses, thus offering a more diversified and practical 
training:, and one better suited to the varying necessities 
of individual pupils. 

All these and many other wise and practical changes 
marked the progress of the College during the adminis- 
tration of Professor John R. Blake; nearly all of them 
remain to this day incorporated in the life-blood of the 
institution, and constituting in great measure the grounds 
for the high claims the College now has for pub- 
lic patronage and favor. It is not held, of course, 
that all these measures were due alone to Professor 
Blake and his Faculty. By no means; for this was an 
administration peculiarly noted as the era of good will, 
mutual confidence and cordial co-operation through all 
the departments of the College and uniting all its ener- 
gies for good. Indeed, the crowning virtue and excel- 
lence of Professor Blake's administration was the tact 
and skill by which he succeeded in making his Faculty a 
unit, thus deriving a power and efficiency which was felt 
throughout all the departments of college work. From 
those who knew the facts we learn that from 1871 to 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 151 

1877 every important measure received the unanimous 
support of the Faculty; that the Chairman never ap- 
peared before the Executive Committee or the Board of 
Trustees to advocate any measure that he did not have 
the moral and intellectual force of his colleagues with 
him. The result was success. The Faculty closely 
studied all questions, the Executive Committee consid- 
ered carefully all propositions submitted to them, which 
finally, after being matured and reviewed, passed to the 
Board for final endorsement. The whole machinery, 
" anointed with the oil of an all-pervading confidence/' 
ran on from year to year without a jar. This thought- 
ful prudence and practical wisdom which controlled the 
governing powers of the College was felt also in the 
details of the discipline and management of the students. 
" Obsta principiis" w 7 hich, liberally translated, means 
"an ounce of precaution is better than a pound of cure," 
was the rule by which all discipline proceeded. Great 
freedom and intimacy was cultivated, so the feeling of 
personal friendship engendered confidence, leading to 
cheerful obedience. The students soon felt that the laws 
were in the hands of their personal friends. All moral 
agencies that could be brought to bear upon young 
minds were applied. The Bible was made a text-book 
of the College, which every student was required to 
study. The religious life of each, student was a subject 
of consideration, and moral restraints were often set 



152 SEMI-CENTBWAKS; ADDRESSES. 

along the pathway of a wayward youth without his 
knowledge, that he might thereby be guided into the 
paths of truth and virtue. When you consider the facts 
set forth by the statistics, that sometimes there were 
more than thirty candidates for the Gospel ministry 
among the students, that at times foar-fifths of the entire 
student body were members of the Church during Pro- 
fessor Blake's administration, yon will see how skillful 
hands by private conferences, timely hints and public 
appeals might success fully mould such young men into 
models of good order and sobriety. As a matter of 
fact, examples show us that the government of the students 
ho the students was a marked feature of Professor Blake's 
administration, and that it was far more potent and 
efficient than any government directly by the Faculty 
could possibly be. Under such circumstances the Col- 
lege necessarily rose rapidly in reputation for good order, 
morality and scholarship, until its praises were in all 
the churches from Virginia to Texas. 

After Professor Blake had resigned the chairmanship 
of the Faculty and Dr. Hepburn had been chosen Presi- 
dent, Dr. McKinnon, then President of the Board of 
Trustees, said, while delivering the keys of the C 
into the hands of Dr. Hepburn: "Davidson Coll: 
owes its present prosperous condition to Professor 
Blake's wise and judicious management." Dr. Hep- 
burn endorsed these views by a spontaneous expression 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 153 

of his appreciation of Professor Blake's valuable ser- 
vices. 

Having spoken thus of Professor Blake's administra- 
tion, I feel that my duty was but imperfectly discharged 
did I not say something in regard to his long and labo- 
rious services in behalf of our College. For twenty- 
five years he stood at the helm bravely battling for the 
high standard of moral and intellectual improvement 
which had been inaugurated. In 1865, when the Col- 
lege was forced to surrender the services of Dr. Kirk- 
patrick, with all which that service signified and repre- 
sented, a few of the Trustees met to consider the impor- 
tant question, whether the College was "to be or not to 
be/' whether the doors should be closed for lack of 
funds or whether they should go bravely on. Professor 
Blake stepped to the front, determined to stand by the 
old ship, though his own entire property had gone down 
with the Confederacy, and though there were no funds in 
the College treasury, he had faith enough to trust to 
the promises of the future and the same good Provi- 
dence which had sustained it during the stormy days of 
war, and though the Faculty were paid by the private 
note of the College Treasurer, to be redeemed when a 
better day dawned. Well now does your speaker recall 
those times when professors opened their houses to the 
students and we were received as members of their fami- 
lies. Money was a rare commodity then. Faithful 



154 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

Aruos was the servant of all work. Well do I remem- 
ber how he and Professor Blake worked to keep up the 
repairs, stopping leaks, mending windows and other 
necessary work ! because there was no money to pay for 
such work. Under the management and supervision of 
Professor Blake the walks on the campus, in their pres- 
ent arrangement, were laid out, the lawns sown in grass 
and over 200 trees planted. These were days of primi- 
tive simplicity, when these beautiful trees were planted, 
beneath whose shade we to-day rest and rejoice. For 
many years Professor Blake was Bursar, which in those 
days also meant " College Improvement Committee." 
He was also Clerk of the Faculty and Librarian — Treas- 
urer of the funds for the candidates for the ministry. 
It often became necessary for him to teach during these 
times of frequent change in the College curriculum out- 
side of his own department. In fact, in his twenty-six 
years of college work he taught in every department in 
the College, from the Geography of the Preparatory to 
the Philosophy of the Senior. Not once during this whole 
time did he remit the Bible; even after it was dropped 
by all the other professors, he steadily went on with 
"Fresh Bible." For all these extra duties and labors 
Professor Blake received no extra pay. Nor was he 
ever heard to complain of insufficient salary. "In 
labors more abundant, in duties above measure," he 
toiled bravely on ; the interests of the College were his 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 155 

interests, her advancement his highest aim, asking no 
other reward than the confidence and regard of his 
co-laborers and the Board whom he served. Could we 
call back those who labored with him, now gone to give 
an account of their stewardship; if we could hear the 
voices of Davis, Pharr, Douglas, Wm. Banks, Harris, 
McDowell — those faithful servants of the College, whose 
places we now fill — they would with one accord give to 
John R. Blake the plaudit, " Well done, good and faith- 
ful servant." 



THE ADMIHISTRATIOH 



OF 



REV. A. D. HEPBURN, D. D, LL. D, 

SEVENTH PRESIDENT OF DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 



BY EDWARD CHAMBERS SMITH, ESQ., CLASS OF 1881 



RALEIGH, N. C. 



I can imagine no calling in life which affords more 
pleasures and delights than that of training youth for a 
career of usefulness — directing and shaping its destiny, 
and moulding the mind and heart in accordance with 
divine direction. And when one has done this success- 
fully, and sees scattered over a great country numbers of 
good citizens upon whom has been stamped his charac- 
ter's seal, each making an impress upon the age in which 
he lives, his highest ambition should be satisfied. 

There is no sphere in which one man is capable of 
exercising a greater influence for good or evil, and our 
beloved institution is to be congratulated that during its 
existence of fifty years the influence of its Presidents 
has always been conspicuous for good. Each one has 



158 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

had his own ideas about questions of detail, but all have 
had the common desire to benefit the young men whose 
mental and moral welfare had been entrusted to their 
care. 

Among those who have held this important office no 
one, from the time of the revered and loved Morrison, 
who first stood at the wheel of the newly-launched ship 
and guided it so well, has more efficiently administered 
its affairs than the Rev. A. D. Hepburn, D. D., LL. D., 
the last ex-President. 

Dr. Hepburn's administration was not an uneventful 
one. It was marked in the main by success. He intro- 
duced new and original methods, and the eight years of 
his government, from the opening of the session of 
1875-76 to the close of the session of 1884-'85, was 
characterized by a broad and progressive policy. 

At the time of his election he was well known in 
North Carolina. Before the clash of arms had been 
heard on the field of Gettysburg, or the flying shells 
had begun to play the funeral music of the South at 
Sumter, he had instructed many of North Carolina's 
now most distinguished sons in the art of clear and lucid 
reasoning and rhetorical expression at the State Univer- 
sity. There he had made a reputation for himself which 
increased with passing years, and when, in 1874, he was 
elected by the Board of Trustees to the Chair of Latin 
and French at Davidson, he came as a ripe scholar, well 
equipped for his work. 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 159 

This chair did not offer him congenial work. He 
preferred the Mental and Moral Sciences and English 
Literature, of which he was the master and in the teach- 
ing of which he excelled; and when, in 1875, one year 
thereafter, he was elected President, he chose this chair, 
which he continued to occupy during his stay at David- 
son, with credit to himself and advantage to his classes. 

Dr. Hepburn did not desire the office of President — 
he did not wish the responsibilities and duties attendant 
upon it, and when it was tendered him he declined it. 
He was finally persuaded, however, to accept it, and 
entered upon its duties with an energy and ability which 
immediately gave assurance of the wisdom of the choice. 
He was an enthusiastic worker, had its welfare at heart, 
and exerted himself for its upbuilding. 

He succeeded Professor Blake, who had been for some 
years "Chairman of the Faculty," the only instance of 
a provisional government. Professor Blake had, by his 
wise methods and business capacity, assisted very mate- 
rially in the advancement of the College, and Dr. Hep- 
burn began his administration under favorable auspices. 

His ideas of government were somewhat different 
from those of his predecessor — more advanced and not 
so generally accepted, but definite and clear in his own 
mind, and he proceeded upon a well marked and settled 
plan. The underlying principle with him was that of 
confidence in the student — presuming every one a gen- 



160 SEMI-CENTENARY ADDRESSES. 

tlernan until the contrary was proven. He treated each 
one as "an end unto himself/' and endeavored to im- 
press upon the individual the feeling of responsibility 
and necessity for honorable action. This was simply an 
application of his philosophy to practical affairs. He 
believed that the College w r as for the student, and sub- 
ordinated the interest of the corporation to that of the 
individual. As the College only existed to train young 
men to a right use of their freedom when they entered 
active life, which would be very soon, he worked to fix 
right principles of action. He discarded all merely 
mechanical contrivances, all merely external influences, 
and aimed to secure conduct from right motives, believ- 
ing all lower influences to be immoral, and only to be 
used where the moral nature was hopelessly degraded. 
As he did not believe the students at Davidson to be in 
this condition, he pursued only the one method of 
straightforward truthfulness and sincere kindly feeling, 
seeking what was best for them, and trusting to their 
sense of right and good feeling to respond. 

He never sought popularity, but he was popular. He 
never sought merely to please the students, yet he did 
please them and was much beloved by them. 

Dr. Hepburn recognized the difficulties to be encoun- 
tered in carrying out these then advanced ideas, which 
are now pretty generally accepted; he knew it involved 
risk, yet he determined to take it. He realized that it 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 161 

would take young people, who are apt to be thoughtless 
anyway, some time to understand such treatment, espe- 
cially when, as in most cases, an opposite course had 
been pursued in the schools. Occasional outbreaks 
against authority might be expected, but along with 
them would come a steady growth in manliness, and my 
observation for four years leads me to say that I believe 
the history of the students in college and after leaving 
verifies the truth of his expectations and exemplifies the 
wisdom of his methods. 

But while always scrupulous in the performance of 
his official duties, his greatest delight was in study, by 
which he added continually to the vast knowledge with 
which the store-house of his mind was already well 
filled. 

It was as a teacher, then, that he was especially excel- 
lent. He had that peculiarly necessary faculty of being 
able to impart to others what he had acquired by years 
of study, and creating an interest in the student by his 
lucid explanation of the subject under discussion, bright- 
ened by apt illustration drawn from practical life. 

Logic under his tuition was a most delightful study. 
He made the most intricate syllogism as simple as an 
example in addition or subtraction, and detected the 
fallacies therein with ease. 

Political Economy, that most useful and practical of 
the Sciences, was easily plastic in his hands. He under- 



-z:-ii—:e>~te>~aey addee-e-, 

stood it as a practical science and taught it as such. His 
discussion of the tariff was the most masterly and prac- 
tical I have - "-:" heard. He went to the very root of 
the question and demonstrated the iniquity of import du- 
ties even to the mos: biased mind, and many a student h 
acquired in his class-rc >m a knowledge of that sub; 
which will enable him. in the coming conflict between 
high tariff mc Jiste on the one si - and the millions 
: »ppressed nsumers on the ":'.-:. t* tear away the 
thin gauze :: - n which sals its hideous por- 

tions from a sufferii _ 

Every subject he taught was made equally interesting. 
Hia attainments were not confined, but wei - varied 

Ziuman knowledge, and his mind - be a well 

_ 

arrange! and labelled reoe for different branch — 

: kn wledge, Bach ooenpying its appropriate chain; 

m which he could draw eithei for original or illus- 
trative facts without apparent effort. 

Hr was * : gh in his teaching. He never left a 
subject until he felt satisfied that the student understood 
it. He imparted everything in detail, well know:; _ 
that the use : generalities indi atesa feeble no 3ts nd- 
.1 carrie- not :ing definite to the hearer. He was 
in ev- .- sense a tea Aer. 

But it was in his sermons, perhaps, that Dr. Hepburn 
gave die greatest of the depth of his intelle 

variety of knowledge and intun jnaintance with 

human nato 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 163 

One of his duties as President was to preach each 
Sunday to the students and villagers in the "Old 
Chapel," the only place of worship in the village. Each 
sermon was prepared before it was delivered and was a 
complete exposition of the subject. His ideas were 
clear, original and strong, and were vindicated by force- 
ful logic clothed in rhetorical expression of purest 
Anglo-Saxon. Every period was full and rounded. 
His language was simple, chaste and easily understood, 
and by his teachings from the pulpit conviction has been 
carried to the doubting hearts of numbers of his hearers, 
who from that time determined to serve God faithfully. 

He displayed in them wonderful knowledge of human 
nature. I have often heard students, after listening to 
one of his masterly discourses, remark: "Dr. Hepburn 
must have known what I had been doing last week, for 
his whole sermon was directed at me." His delivery 
was impressive, without oratorical embellishments. 

He had faithful coadjutors in his work. There was 
the learned, wise and earnest Blake, who had just 
vacated the office of "Chairman of the Faculty," in the 
Chair of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy, from 
which he taught to those who would learn the secrets of 
that powerful fluid which has superseded almost every 
other force and unlocked the doors of the great vault of 
the heavens to willing eyes; the practical and active 
Martin, who, in the Chair of Chemistry and Natural 



164 -EMI-CEXTEXAEY ADDRESSES. 

History, shed light upon the " Eozoon Canadensis* 5 and 

deciphered therefrom the history of the universe: the 
profound and energetic Latimer, who, bringing from 
Leipsic his Ph. D.. delighted in looking up some nice 
and delicate question in ancient Greek, and was unhappy 
that he could not teach it in German; the cultivated, 
polished and skillful Sampson, by whom the kindred 
languages of Latin and French were taught: the mod- 
est and retiring, but able. Cars >n. who entered upon his 
duties as Professor of Mathematics the same year that I 
went to Davidson, was easily the master of his depart- 
ment. 

These earnest workers, actuated by a common desire, 
-trove for success and accomplished it. as the record- of 
the College will show, and the result of their lab 
will be felt long after they '"have passed beyond the 
twilight of the purple hills." It was a strong Faculty. 

This administration covers a period too recent to re- 
quire any extended remarks about the general material 
prosperity of the College. The records -how the con- 
tinual increase in paying students during Dr. Hepburn's 
incumbency of the office. It is difficult to say to what 
causes this must be attributed. Many causes combined 
produced the result, but I think I may truthfully say 
that the reputation for learning and high character en- 
joyed by the President contributed in no small degree to 
this prosperity. Those who had sons and ward- to send 



DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 165 

to college knew his broad and liberal views and that 
they were in consonance with a progressive sentiment. 

His connection with the College was severed in June, 
1885, and his students, with whom he had associated for 
years, parted with him with sincere regret. He had 
previously resigned in 1881, but, at the unanimous 
request of the students, withdrew his resignation. Again 
in June, 1884, he tendered his resignation, but although 
both students and Trustees insisted on its withdrawal, he 
only yielded to their solicitations to remain until the end 
of the next scholastic year. 

It is to be regretted that he had his time so much oc- 
cupied during his term at Davidson. He had more than 
any one man could do well. 

Crowded into his course were History, Logic, 
Rhetoric, Mental Science, Ethics, Political Economy and 
Evidences of Christianity. 

Preaching twice on Sunday until he was compelled to 
abandon one service, and executive duties of all kinds, 
among which were attendance upon ecclesiastical meet- 
ings in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and 
Florida. He performed them as best he could, but I 
have no doubt that if the duties of the President could 
be curtailed more satisfactory results would follow. 

Dr. Hepburn is now occupying a professor's chair at 
Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, with honor, and 
I know you will all join with me in a hearty wish for 
his success wherever he may be. 



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